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American actor that played many roles, including Mel, owner of Mel's Diner in the television series Alice. He was born on January 06, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York and died of a heart attack on May 25, 1990 in Glendale, California. After graduating from high school in 1949, he joined the U.S. Navy, serving during the Korean War. In 1963 he married Sheila Maureen Barnard. She died in 2001.
American actor and comedian. Born January 13, 1934 in Washington, DC., he became a Congressional page and was then drafted in the US Army. He was assigned to the Army Signal Corps and was sent to Korea. Rip was on a troop ship heading to Korea when he put on a comedy pantomime act for the soldiers on the ship. He was later transferred to Special Services in Tokyo, Japan. After the war and during his Hollywood career, he was a frequent celebrity guest panelist on game shows such as Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, The Gong Show, etc.
U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1964. Maxwell Taylor was a 1922 graduate of West Point. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day during the Battle of the Bulge and the drive through Germany. He took command of the 8th Army, Korea, 1953-54.
Press Secretary (1974) for President Gerald Ford. Born July 11, 1922, he died March 31, 2010. He served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946. After his military service, he worked as a reporter for the Grand Rapids Press (1946–1951). He returned to active duty with the Marine Corps in 1951–1952. He then joined the Detroit News, where he served as city and state political writer (1953–1957), Washington correspondent (1958–1960), and Washington Bureau Chief (1961–1974).
Actor. Born June 2, 1934, Lowell (Middlesex County), Massachusetts. Died October 11, 1990. Buried in Saint Josephs Cemetery, Chelmsford (Middlesex County), Massachusetts. Robert Tessier was an actor primarily known for his powerful build, scowling face and shaven head. He was an Algonquin Indian who broke into the acting profession in the late sixties. Typically cast as the tough guy/villain or Native American (which he was), he was a mainstay in movies and television in a career that spanned over twenty years. His first movie role was in the 1967 Tom Laughlin film, The Born Losers (the film which introduced the "Billy Jack" character) in which he played a biker named "Cueball". Ironically, Robert sported a full head of hair in this film (despite the name of his character) and this was also a nickname by which he was affectionately known by in real life by his friends. He was also a lifelong motorcyclist (who once performed motorcycle stunts in the circus) and formed the company "Stunts Unlimited" with Director Hal Needham. As a young man, Robert Tessier also received four Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, and a Silver Star for his military service during the Korean War. (He was a PFC and a paratrooper in the US Army's 45th ID.) Although Robert Tessier starred in a vast number of movies and TV roles over his career, probably two of his best remembered movie roles were as the menacing, karate-wielding convict, 'Shokner' in the 1974 comedy-drama The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds (whom he counted as one of his friends) and as 'Kevin' in the 1977 mystery-thriller, The Deep. He even ventured into the realm of TV commercials during his career, as Mr. Clean and in a series of commercials in the eighties for Midas Mufflers in Canada with other high-profile stars such as Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance and Bo Hopkins. (Biography written by Todd Young - with additions by the KWE.)
Founder of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers Restaurant chain. Mess Sergeant, US Army, during the Korean War. Volunteered for the Army. Sent to Cook and Bakers School at Ft. Benning, GA. Mess Sergeant in Germany responsible for the meals of 2,000 soldiers per day. Discharged 1953 with the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Born on November 20, 1935 in Jonesboro, Louisiana, Thomas was a co-founder and leading force in the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed black self-defense militia that helped protect civil rights workers from the Ku Klux Klan. Earnest Thomas was a Korean War veteran (US Air Force) and the vice president of the first chapter of the Deacons in Jonesboro. He died on February 21, 2006 in California. The father of five children, he is buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.
Child actor (Buckwheat) in the Our Gang/Little Rascals series 1934-1944. Born March 12, 1931 in Los Angeles, California, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1954 and served until he was discharged in 1956. He died October 10, 1980 of a heart attack in Los Angeles after a long career as a film lab technician with Technicolor in Hollywood. He is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
Member of the Arkansas House and official in the Social Security Administration. Born October 17, 1931 in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, Jerry Thomassen graduated in 1949 from Arkadelphia High School. He served in the US Army during the Korean War. From 1963 to 1966 he was a Democratic member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. In 1971 President Richard Nixon appointed Thomasson as an administrative law judge of the Social Security and remained there until his retirement in 2000. He died April 29, 2007.
Born December 01, 1928, this actor was best known for his roles in Star Trek. It Takes a Thief, and Batman. He also made numerous guest appearances on television shows such as Ben Casey, The Untouchables, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He served in an infantry unit attached to an artillery outfit in Korea. He died March 13, 2013.
Country music songwriter and singer. Lonnie Melvin Tillis was born August 8, 193 in Tampa, Florida. He attended the University of Florida briefly in the early 1950s. He served in the Air Force in the Korean War. He was stationed in Okinawa where he worked as a cook and baker and sang regularly on Armed Forces Radio. After discharge he began his music career in earnest, moving to Nashville in 1957. He wrote hit songs for Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Brenda Lee and Waylon Jennings. In the 1970s he was a prime recording artist. In the 1970s and 80s he accumulated numerous comedy-action film credits. He is an inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Engineer and inventor. Born January 14, 1935, Topf was an engineer at the Bronz-based NASA subcontractor Farrant Optical Company, which did work for the Apollo program. He worked at Andrea Electronics Corp, Queens, where he was a pivotal engineer that helped Andrea transition to computer-based equipment in the 1990s. Topf created voice dictation and noise cancelling technology used in IBM microphones. He held six patents with Andrea by the time he retired in 1997. Martin Topf served in the Army during the Korean War. He died November 18, 2018.
"Edward Benjamin Townsend was born in 1929 and as a child sang in his father's African Methodist Episcopal church. He graduated from Arkansas State College before enlisting in the Marines in 1951. Corporal Townsend served for two years in Korea, where he was discovered by bandleader Horace Heidt. With Heidt, Townsend toured Asia before he settled in Los Angeles, where he would write more than 200 songs – most notably, "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye. Townsend died August 13, 2003, and is buried at Riverside
National Cemetery (Section BA, Grave C-213)." [Source: www.cem.va.gov]
USMA class of 1950. From Memphis, TN. Captain of the undefeated 1949 Army Football Team, he was killed in action November 15, 1950 near Wonsan, North Korea, while serving with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.
Minor League baseball player. [Source: Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice.com]. Frederick Beverly Tschudin was born on May 29, 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Beaumont High School in St. Louis and signed as a catcher with the St. Louis Browns in 1940. Assigned to the Lafayette White Sox of the Class D Evangeline League, Tschudin (who used the first names of Fred and Beverly during his playing career) batted .200 in 70 games. In 1941 he started the season with Lafayette but was released at the end of June and picked up by the Port Arthur Tarpons of the same league. By mid-July he was with the Evangeline League's Rayne Rice Birds and finished the year with the Alexandria Aces. In 55 games he batted .192. Tschudin started the 1942 campaign with Alexandria but joined the Pampa Oilers of the Class D West Texas-New Mexico League in June. Playing just 10 games with the Oilers, Tschudin joined the Muskogee Reds of the Class C Western Association for the remainder of the season, batting .212 in 62 games and earning honorable mention as a Western Association all-star selection. Tschudin's contract was owned by the Shreveport Sports of the Texas League at this time, but when the Sports ceased operations at the end of 1942, the 20-year-old catcher was purchased by the St. Paul Saints of the American Association. However, he never played a game for his new affiliate before military service beckoned early in 1943. Tschudin served with the US Navy during World War II and attained the rank of Lieutenant serving with VT-17 (Torpedo Squadron 17) aboard the USS Hornet. Returning to baseball in 1946, Tschudin attended spring training with St. Paul and started the regular season with the Asheville Tourists of the Class B Tri-State League. He batted .206 in 50 games before joining the Grand Forks Chiefs of the Class C Northern League. Tschudin really found his stride with the Chiefs and hit .327 in 30 games. He was with the Pensacola Fliers and the Vicksburg Billies of the Class B Southeastern League in 1947 and joined the Miami Tourists of the Class C Florida International League in 1948, batting .273 in 135 games. In 1949, Miami became a Brooklyn Dodgers affiliate and Tschudin spent spring training with the renamed Sun Sox at recently opened Dodgertown. By the time the regular season came around, Tschudin was with the Douglas Trojans of the Class D Georgia State League where he enjoyed a career year batting .350 in 135 games. Aged 28, he was named player-manager of the Trojans during 1950 and led the club to a second-place finish. He was player-manager of the Tifton Blue Sox in 1951 and batted .300 in 122 games while guiding the team to a fourth place finish and a spot in the league finals. By the time spring training 1952 came around the Korean War was almost two years old. Many players were in military service and Tschudin – with his World War II combat aviation experience – was serving as a civilian instructor at Kinston Air Base in Georgia, a USAF Air Training Command base. On March 14, 1952, Second Lieutenant Martin F. Gould – a Rutgers graduate – was taking flight training instruction from Tschudin aboard a North American T-6D Texan. At some point during the flight the single-engine trainer suffered engine failure and crashed while attempting an emergency landing 12 miles northwest of Kinston, killing both Tschudin and Gould. Fred Tschudin was survived by his widow Winifred "Winkie" Mitchell and their two children John Richard and Cindy. He is buried at Douglas City Cemetery in Douglas, Georgia.
Actor who played the "rich kid" in the Our Gang series. Born in Chicago, Illinois with the name Jerome H. Schatz on November 01, 1925, he served in the US Navy in World War II and the Korean War. Tucker was injured on April 14, 1945 off Okinawa. While serving on the USS Sigsbee DD-502, a Japanese kamikaze did major damage to the destroyer.
Minor League baseball player. He was serving in the US Army when he was killed in action in Korea on April 7, 1953. Serial number US51191564. Private E2 Tumlinson was a light weapons assault crewman/infantry leader when he was killed in Korea. Carl "Duane" Tumlinson was born on March 31, 1932 in Phoenix, Arizona, the son of Carlos and Dorothy Tumlinson. Known as Duane during his teenage years, he attended Union High School in Phoenix where he was an outstanding baseball and basketball player, earning honorable mention in the Class A High School Basketball championship. On July 4, 1952, Tumlinson left Phoenix to return to Elmira, New York, where he was inducted in the Army on July 8. Private Carl Tumlinson served in Korea with Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regimental Combat Team. He was killed in action on April 7, 1953. Private Tumlinson was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
President of the Naval War College 1972-74/Director of Central Intelligence 1977-81/Commander of the 2nd Fleet 1974-75. Born December 01, 1923 in Highland Park, Illinois, he served in the Navy for thirty-plus years. He was gunnery officer aboard the destroy USS Stribling and then operations officer aboard the USS Hanson, taking part in bombardments in the closing months of the Korean War. He died January 18, 2018.
See "Jenkins, Harold Lloyd".