Friday, November 11, 2016

Veteran's Day

LeRoy Parkinson Tanner served on the Mexican border and then in Europe during the First World War. Sometime after the war he joined the American Legion, which is a veteran's organization founded in 1919. A collection of his membership cards starts in 1935, and the first card notes that he had been a member for ten years. Here are a few of the cards.




The back of the 1942 card.




Some years he paid his dues early and got an "Early Bird" stamp on the card. Sometime in late 1944 he paid his dues and signed his card for 1945. It was before November 5, because that is the day that he and his brother-in-law were finishing work for the day and were killed in an automobile-train collision outside of Grants, New Mexico.


In memory of Roy Tanner
and the many men and women
who have served in the armed forces
of the United States of America.



The cards are from my father's collection of thousands of scanned photos and other genealogical memorabilia. (Thanks, Dad!) This post is reposted from seven years ago.