JARRETT, THOMAS LEE (PHOTO) - Desha County, Arkansas | THOMAS LEE (PHOTO) JARRETT - Arkansas Gravestone Photos

Thomas Lee (Photo) JARRETT

McGehee Cemetery
Desha County,
Arkansas

Sept 8, 1920 - Oct 18, 1944

Photo & article (Arkansas Gazette)
ancestry.com

MeGehee, Oct. 18

Thomas Lee Jarrett, aged 23, who received a medical discharge from the Army Air Forces and returned home last Saturday after 31 missions over Germany from an English base, died in a Dermott hospital about 7 tonight, a few minutes after a Ford pick-up truck which he had been driving wrecked in a ditch one mile north of McGehee on U. S. Highway 65.

His companion, Willard Love, also about 23, a former McGehee resident who was visiting here on leave from the navy, suffered a broken arm and other injuries in the wreck and was taken to a Lake Village hospital. His wife lives in Eudora.

The accident occurred about 300 yards north of the overpass above the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks, and screams of the injured men were heard by persons in a small grocery store at an intersection of the highway with the road to McGehee about 400 yards from the scene. An ambulance was called and the two were taken to hospitals immediately.

A Negro who witnessed the accident said that Jarrett was driving south on Highway 65 at a moderate speed and that he appeared to lose control of the truck which ran along the shoulder of the road about 100 feet before it plunged in a ditch six to eight feet deep.

Young Jarrett was a gunner on a Flying Fortress and had made six missions over Berlin in combat, as a part of his 31 missions. He had received several decorations and had a highly creditable war record. He was not wounded while in service.

He was born and reared in McGehee and had graduated from McGehee High School.

Surviving are his father and mother, Mr. & Mrs John R. Jarrett, a brother, Ezra, and two
sisters, Mrs. Ed Short and Mrs Bonnie Collins all of McGehee.

Contributed on 1/29/18 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1208750

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Submitted: 1/29/18 • Approved: 1/30/18 • Last Updated: 2/2/18 • R1208750-G0-S3

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