Gurley "Gene" Eugene Barr
(1925-2013)
Barr, Woolsey, Miller, Bilderback, Lauderdale and associated families of Warrick and Spencer Counties in Indiana.
My Grandmother Mary Josephine Woodson Humphreys met and married my Step Grandfather (who I will call Grandpa from here in) on August 15th 1966 in Henderson, Kentucky.
Both Mary Jo and Gene were divorced and had one child Robert Rivers Humphreys Jr. from Mary Jo's previous marriage who was serving in Vietnam when Gene and Jo married.
(I am the daughter of Robert Rivers, Lori Jo born in 1965.)
Before I present this genealogy I would like to convey that Grandpa was present for my entire life, I do not remember a time without Grandpa until after his death.
Grandpa was a war veteran who received a Bronze Star for his service in World War II and not until I was an adult would he describe his experience to any of us. I can tell you his demeanor and verbal description of what he witnessed during that time had deeply scared him. In modern times he would have been diagnosed with PTSD at the very least. I sat down with him on his "personal" couch one Sunday afternoon while beginning his family tree interview and the subject of his service came up, since it was a very important part of his life and he was rightly very proud of his service. I cautiously asked him if he would talk to me about his experience, the fact that Grandpa had never spoke about it in all the years of listening to his stories he would often tell about growing up and his life as a young man. Grandpa said "I will try to tell you, if I can find the words to paint the picture." a lump formed in my throat when he said that, I immediately knew he needed to talk about it to let it go in some way.
(Reminds me of a song "You should have seen it in color")
The following is what he told me about that time.
I was a young man, had never seen the world much. I grew up on a farm in Folsomville, Indiana as you know. My Mom and Dad bought a restaurant on Division Street and bought a house on Garvin St. in Evansville when I was still a young man before the war. Well, that was like moving to Chicago to me, small farm to a big ole city. We did have family in Evansville and I had lived with family in Evansville to go to school for a time.
Gurley Thomas Barr (1901-1975) and Dora Elizabeth Woolsey (1900-1976) So there came the time when I joined the Army to serve in the War. Every man should serve their country, it was my duty to go. I went to Germany.
Sgt. Gurley Eugene Barr 86th Infantry, Div. Blackhawks, 342nd Reg., 3rd BN., Co. K, 2nd Platoon. France/Germany Feb. through June 1945. Liberated Moosburg POW Camp. As the 86th advanced into the Ruhr region, the troops discovered the Attendorn civilian forced-labor camp on April 11, 1945. The camp had been established to provide labor to area factories and it housed up to 1,000 conscripted Polish, Soviet, and Czech laborers.
Attendorn Civilian Labor Camp - Blackhawk Liberation
Blackhawk Campaign Map
Germany was when I went from being a young man to a grown man. I could not understand or believe the things that I saw there. We were so cold and there were thousands of us. I was a Blackhawk, it was a big deal to be a part of the Blackhawks, very proud. The Army took us to France, they marched us fighting across the Danube River and we were cold and our boots and socks were wet, but we kept marching and fighting. It was a mess over there the people were living in terrible conditions. Buildings, churches and homes destroyed by the bombs.
One day after we had liberated a few camps and allied forces had obliterated the Nazi forces, the people we would see leaving these camps...well, we did not know they were alive or even human for that matter. The people were just walking bones to me, I will never get the sight of them walking passed us like zombies out of my head. They had no homes to go to, no food, no clothes, did not know where their people were and all we could do at the moment was give them what we had in our packs until they brought in the trucks from the allies and American Red Cross (I think) with food and clothes.
Grandpa and I cried as he described the condition of the people he had encountered and his fear for what would happen to them without any place to go. I was also heartbroken for the young soldiers who did not know people do this to other people and could survive such horrendous conditions. Grandpa said most of us boys were just in a daze of shock not for the war and fighting, but for the people we saw, the dead and the alive, until they were finally home again.
So then, this courageous man, I called Grandpa, I had a deeper understanding of his personality and his life that I did not before.
Photographic Genealogy of Gene Barr
Ancestry Screen Shot - Compiled by Lori Jo Humphreys-Lee
Dora Elizabeth Woolsey Barr circa 1918
Back L to Rt: Helen Kingsbury Woolsey, Oral Woolsey, Elmer, Flora, Dora. Front L to Rt : Cleo A, Theodore T, Ella, Eva on her father's knee, Arrata Woolsey, Rena "Alice" Lauderdale Woolsey, & baby Dorothy in Alice's lap. Date: 1900
Rena Alice Lauderdale Woolsey circa 1890
Maternal Great Grandparents of Gene Barr
Gene Barr and his paternal Grandmother Sarah Ann Miller Barr
Andrew Alexander "Pa" Barr (1846-1919) circa 1918
Great Grandfather of Gene Barr
arrived in America in 1848 from Ireland with his family.
2nd Great Grandfather - Paternal
George Augustus Chapman (1804-1887) Immigrated to Ohio from Scotland his wife, Ann Bromley Whitaker was born in England. George's Scottish Mother Agnes Lindsey-Chapman is a widow by 1850.
And so as a final dedication to the Genealogical work I conducted for my Grandpa is here concluded. Grandpa had no children and no nieces or nephews to carry on this family tree. As a genealogist I am saddened. As a Granddaughter to Gene Barr, I am very proud of this work and the person my Grandpa was, so I preserve just a small part of his story here.
Grandpa Gene Barr in 2007
Grandpa Gurley Eugene Barr in 1992 with my son Nicholas Eugene Sanders
My daughter Tessa Elizabeth Sanders-Clark with Grandma Mary Jo Woodson-Barr and Grandpa Gene Barr in 2009
There is so much more to tell about Grandpa and his life and the life of his family. I will be writing a blog for his Aunt Izel Mae Barr-Cook very soon as I inherited all of her family papers as well. I will be transcribing her birth, death and marriage records she had tucked into her family bible on hand written letters.
to be continued...
