ROBIN REPORT: Maryanne Peterson writes Sunday: “Today as I
visited my brother LeRoy Neubert on Worrell Street in Wilcox he
pointed out two robins in the maple tree. The sunshine on their
beautiful red breasts was a welcome sight after the winter
storm.”
No doubt, sights for very sore eyes.
AND THIS: We ran a story earlier this year about McKean County
casualties in World War II. A reader brings in another chapter in
this story, the death of Bennett F. Penn, killed in a training
accident in Texas in 1942. He was considered the first local person
to die in World War II.
In a newspaper clipping from Dec. 10, 1942, it was reported that
Penn was 25 years old at the time of his death.
“An airplane crash Saturday near San Angelo, Texas, claimed the
life of Aviation Cadet Bennett F. Penn, aged 25, son of Mrs.
Carolyn Katherine Penn of Smethport RD1, according to a report
reaching his mother Sunday,” the story says.
“He was one of four men killed in the crash of a bombardier
training plane, San Angelo Army Field officials announced.
“In Cadet Penn, Smethport lost its first young man in World War
II.
“He had been stationed at San Angelo Army Air Field Bombardier
school, San Angelo. Details of the accident and the nature of the
flight have not been learned. He enlisted in the Coast Artillery on
Jan. 22, 1941, and was transferred to the Air Corps last June.
“Sent to the San Angelo Army Air Field school, he was training
to be a bombardier. Recently he had been appointed squadron supply
sergeant of Class 43-1 at the school.
“Born in Smethport, June 22, 1917, he has lived here virtually
all his life until enlisting in the Armed Forces.
“A student at Smethport High School from 1931 to 1935, he was
president of the junior and senior classes and a member of the
Smethport football team for four years.
“He married Miss Ruth Morris of Richmond, Va., on Nov. 11,
1941.
“Survivors, in addition to his wife and mother, include a
sister, Mrs. Howard A. Wright of Smethport, a brother, George Penn
of Newport News, Va., employed in a ship yard there.
Funeral services were held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church with
burial in the family plot in Rose Hill Cemetery, according to the
newspaper report.
