News Item - Bell of Alabama is Expected to Strengthen Rupp Wildcats,
Lexington Leader - January 3, 1944
Bad news is in the making for future opponents of the University of Kentucky basketball team, winners in seven of eight starts. Coach Adolph Rupp of the Wildcats announced today that Maurice (Red) Bell, freshman guard for the University of Alabama last season, would enter Kentucky this quarter if his credits are acceptable. Bell will be eligible to play under the Southeastern Conference's new ruling on transfer students.
Colonel Clarence E. Jordan, Jr., also known as "Zeke" to his friends and "Bubba" to his family, died at the age of 87 at the Broadview Assisted Living Facility in Tallahassee, Florida on April 7th, 2012 after a long illness. Zeke was born on August 28th, 1924 in Mobile, Alabama to Mr. Clarence E. and Mrs. Ruth Anna Goleman Jordan. His family included two brothers, Alfred (Al) and Kirk and one sister, Eloise ("Sis"). In 1927 the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Zeke graduated from Sidney Lanier High School. After attending Tulane University for one year, Zeke was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated from West Point and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1946. Shortly after graduation in June 1946, he married Miss Beulah (Boots) Greer of Montgomery, Alabama at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Montgomery, Alabama on December 23rd, 1946.
By Basch Jernigan | Posted: Monday, March 19, 2012 3:36 pm
It is the summer of 1942. It is a mild, sunny day in Hemet, Calif. and the only sound that can be heard near the local airport is that of roaring engines. The feeling of hurried preparation for war is in the air and eyes are firmly set on the sky. Two-engine, open-cockpit airplanes are shifting in every direction; stalling, looping and rolling through the bluest of sky.
“Would you like something to drink?” Suddenly I snap back into reality and my eyes are met with the pleasant sight of a cozy kitchen in Foley, Ala. I’m seated at a kitchen table across from an older gentleman with neatly combed white hair, a white buttoned up shirt and bright blue eyes that smile at me through a pair of spectacles. This man is a WWII veteran, Mr. Lorren Perdue. His wife, standing behind him with her hands on his shoulders, was the one who offered the kind question. “No, thank you,” I replied.
Mr. Perdue, after recently celebrating his 90th birthday, has just retired from a life filled with enough excitement and stories to fill a novel. And on this day in March 2012, more than70 years after the beginning of WWII, I had the pleasure of reliving a number of these stories with him.
The Saturday Evening Post in 1952 had an article about the bravery of the West Point graduates in the Korean War. Leslie was listed as one of the future potential military leaders of the U.S. Army. First Lieutenant Leslie Kirkpatrick was a member of the West Point Class of 1950. Of the 670 graduates of that class, 41 were killed in the Korean War. Leslie was Killed In Action (KIA), November 5, 1950. He was listed in Unit 19 Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.