He will always be Daddy Matt to his grandchildren, but to his friends, formally, he was General James Madison Pearson. He was born in 1888 in Birmingham, Alabama, enlisted at 17 in the army and went to fight in the Philippine Insurrection with Black Jack Pershing. During World War I, he fought in France in the Haute Marne (near Metz and Verdun, west of Strasburg, near the Vosges Mountains). He was wounded in action, met a French girl by the name of Marguerite Chevalier, fell in love, and married her. My mother, Elmire, was their first child.
These are his campaign ribbons.
No comments:
Post a Comment