Today in History: Washington World War II Hero Wainwright Honored on Nov. 9, 1945

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Walla Walla Honors Native Son and World War II Hero Gen. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright on Nov. 9, 1945

Walla Walla honors native son and war hero Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright IV (1883-1953). Over the weekend, Wainwright will ride in a parade, make speeches, and pose for pictures. The celebration comes barely three months after his release from a POW camp and two months after he is promoted to four-star general and receives the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972). 

A Hero Returns Home

Gen. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1883-1953), his son Jonathan “Jack” M. Wainwright V (1913-1996), and Jack’s wife, Elfrida Olsen Wainwright,  approached Walla Walla airfield in his military aircraft on their way to a weekend of events in the general’s honor. Daughter-in-law Elfrida substituted for the general’s wife, Adele “Kitty” Wainwright, who was ill. It would be yet another in a series of public events for General Wainwright, who had recently been honored in New York City with a ticker-tape parade and in Washington, D.C., with the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. The Walla Walla events were especially sweet because historic Fort Walla Walla was the place of the general’s birth. The town was  looking forward to the occasion and had prepared a fitting welcome. But there was a snag. Bad weather forced the general’s plane, the “Bataan Avenger,” to turn back and land in La Grande, Oregon.

Not to be so easily foiled, the Walla Walla event’s organizers, Mayor Herbert G. West (1904-1974) and Chamber of Commerce manager Alfred McVay (1906-2002), went into action to get the general and his party to town. They arranged seats on a Union Pacific train from La Grande to Pendleton, Oregon, and volunteers from Walla Walla  headed to Pendleton in eight cars to pick up the guests.

It had been a long time since Gen. Wainwright’s last visit to Washington. (He’d come to Seattle in 1939 when his mother died.)  A Walla Walla native son, he was born on Aug. 23, 1883, at Fort Walla Walla, the third child of army Lieutenant Robert Powell Page Wainwright (1852-1902) and Josephine Serrell Wainwright (1852-1939). His father was a cavalry officer who served at the post, a combat veteran who would die of disease in the Philippines in 1902. Unfortunately, no one knows which of the surviving officer’s quarters at Fort Walla Walla the Wainwrights occupied. In October 1883 the family had transferred to Fort Bidwell, California.   

Walla Walla Welcomes its Native Son 

General Wainwright had a full day on Saturday, November 10. The official activities began with a morning press conference and then a downtown parade attended by large crowds despite cold weather. Following the parade the general gave a speech encouraging Victory Loan bond purchases. That afternoon he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Whitman College. Next he toured the Veteran’s Hospital, housed in the former Fort Walla Walla, his birthplace. Here he gave a talk to assembled patients. He had one more stop, a talk at the army’s McCaw General Hospital. An evening dinner at the Grand Hotel had local prominent individuals attending, with two local heroes receiving special attention — Captain Harold Hendricson (1919-1992) and First Lieutenant Leroy A. Bastron (1915-1979), each recognized for valor with the Silver Star.  

On Sunday, November 11, Armistice Day (renamed Veterans Day in 1954), the main event had Gen. Wainwright delivering an Armistice Day message at Borleske Stadium, in which he called for maintaining a strong military. Following the speech, Mayor West presented him with a new Ford that the community had purchased. The vehicle had a special license plate sure to be easily recognized during his planned 10-day tour of the Pacific Northwest. The plate read “VJ 8-1945 JMW” (Victory over Japan, August 1945, Jonathan M. Wainwright).

Following the Walla Walla ceremonies,  the Wainwrights toured the Pacific Northwest and then traveled to the East Coast, with a stop in Detroit. There the Ford Motor Car Company replaced the Ford with a more expensive Lincoln.

Last Years and Legacies

In January 1946, Gen.Wainwright assumed command of the Fourth Army, headquartered at San Antonio, Texas. The following year he retired. Gen. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright died on Sept. 2, 1953. He is  buried in Arlington National Cemetery. When Adele Wainwright died in 1970,  she was buried next to him. 

In 1944 Walla Walla named the street to the Veteran’s Hospital “Gen. Wainwright Avenue” and erected a sign at the hospital entrance. A permanent monument was placed there in September 1968. In 1961 the army named a post in Fairbanks, Alaska, in his honor, and Fort Wainwright has proudly exhibited the general’s uniform and other personal items.

On Nov. 11, 1996, the Veteran’s Hospital at Fort Walla Walla was renamed the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center. A statue of General Wainwright and a monument stand at the facility.



 

University of Washington Reinstates Three of Four Suspended Black Football Players on Nov. 9, 1969

The University of Washington and Huskies Coach Jim Owens (1927-2009) reinstates three black football players whom he had suspended from the team on October 30. The suspend players were Gregg Alex, Ralph Bayard, Harvey Blanks, and Lamar Mills. All but Harvey Blanks are reinstated.

UW Huskies Coach Jim Owens had suspended the four players for what he termed lack of commitment to the team. Following this, the other African American players on the team refused to travel to Los Angeles to play, and activists demand Owens’s resignation. The University of Washington pressured Owens to reconsider. He reinstated three of the four players. During this series of events, African American assistant coach Carver Gayton resigned.

Seattle Parks Superintendent Announces Aquarium Director Ronald Glazier’s Resignation on Nov. 9, 1984

Seattle Parks Superintendent Walter Hundley (1929-2002) announces the resignation of Seattle Aquarium director Ronald Glazier. Glazier cited frustration with Parks Department management as the reason for leaving the post he has held for three years.

Glazier was the aquarium’s second director, having replaced Doug Kemper, who was forced out in June 1981 after expressing similar concerns about City management.

Hundley said he did not try to talk Glazier out of resigning, claiming that many top staff left during Glazier’s term. The previous year, the aquarium had suffered its fourth consecutive year of declining attendance.

Glazier blamed the lack of major new exhibits since 1977 for the declining attendance. However, he said the trend had reversed. He predicted more visitors next year.

The long-delayed Tropical Pacific exhibit, a high priority when Glazier was hired, was expected to open in late 1985. The exhibit was delayed when the 20,000-gallon main tank sprung leaks.

Glazier said he was frustrated about cutbacks to the aquarium’s promotional budget and said science and research functions did not receive as much support as recreational programs.

Hundley said Parks Department operations director C. M. “Bud” Girtch would assume control of day-to-day operations until a new director could be found.