Memories of Brice by Glenn
Posted by admin on June 16, 2011
in Brice Dooley
Hi Jackie:
I am glad I could enlighten you on such a significant day in history.
The following is approximately what I related to Gail, about Uncle Brice [talking about Dewayne ‘his dad”).
His dad was a quiet man who didn’t fit in (was common thing) well after WW2. Brice was the Coxswain on a landing craft in the Pacific Theater. If you saw “Saving Private Ryan” you got an idea of what the landing craft guys did. His education was the war and apparently both he and Uncle Jim Dooley learned to fight and or brawl while participating. I and Les (maybe) worked with him on the Wellington grain elevator construction project (White Construction Company). Brice went on to work for them for a unknown amount of years. I don’t remember Les for sure. Ray Chapman was there too. Ray & I must have been a 8th or 9th graders.
Anyway, tell him his dad was a good man who struggled with alcohol and his brother Jim’s death by gunshot, when Brice was the target. Dewayne’s Mom (Edna) lived with us for a while, when we lived on South 3rd street (Washington School). I have no idea why Edna was in Ark City. She might have been pregnant with Dewayne at that time. That must have been near the time Jim & Brice were shot. I remember Mom & Dad leaving Les & I unattended to go to Ralston for the funeral preparation. I could be wrong on the timing because we lived there from the 4th thru 6th or 7th grade for me. Mostly, I remember the heart breaking sound of “TAP’s” at Jim’s funeral.
Be well!!
Glenn
