Recently while browsing for my grandfather's name on Ancestry Library Edition, I ran into the application for a headstone for Steen Leroy Parker at the database: U.S. Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963. These records have been compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration. From this record, I learned that Grandpa Steen L. Parker enlisted in the U.S. Navy on October 21, 1943, and he was discharged on December 1, 1945. He was a Machinists Mate 2/C, and he served with the Construction Battalion, also known as the CBs or Seabees. Grandpa's tombstone was to be a flat granite marker. His brother, my uncle Glenn Parker, was to see that the tombstone was transported from the freight station to Bogart Cemetery (now known as Perkins Cemetery.) My mom's stepmother, Ruth Mary Parker, signed the application for the tombstone. Grandpa Parker's birth and death dates were also listed on the application for the headstone. Here is a picture of the tombstone at Perkins Cemetery.
Rest in peace, Grandpa Steen L. Parker. Though I never met him, I have surely heard a multitude of stories about him!
2 comments:
What an amazing find, Dorene! Your grandfather was so young when he died. How sad.
He really was so young, as was his first wife, my grandmother Doris.
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