Today is Memorial Day 2021. Seventy-seven years ago this June, my mom’s brother was shot down over France. He died in the crash. This blog is about the uncle I never knew.
Alva Devere Bessey was born in Day Township, Montcalm County, Michigan on the 9th of February in the year 1921. His parents, Clarence and Ethel, had twin six year olds, Murell and Pearl. The family would be joined by three more children over the next 15 years, Dorothy, Jim, and Meredith. Here is a picture of the five oldest children taken around 1933 when Alva was 12.
Alva’s parents moved to Grand Rapids when he was just a few years old and lived the city life until 1935 when his parents moved to rural Alpine Township, approximately ten minutes north. His dad was 55 and it was the middle of the depression. Alva would continue his schooling in the city and graduated from Union High School in 1938.
The country was at war a few years later. Alva registered for the draft just a week after his 21st birthday in February of 1942. It would be almost a year before he headed for training in the United States Army Air Corp.
Ancestors Across the Ages 