Cleburne County AlArchives Obituaries.....Ayres  ALABAMA GOLD STAR, Joseph Irvin  October 15, 1918
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 October 21, 2022, 4:45 pm

Cleburne News
September 29, 1921:
The remains of Joseph Irvin Ayres who was killed in action in France in the 
battle of the Argonne Forest October 15, 1918, arrived in Heflin last Friday 
night and was carried to the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Pat J. Ayres, 
near Dothard's Mill. The burial occurred Sunday, Sept. 25, 1921, at Hepzabah. 
The funeral services being in charge of Rev. J. W. Grubbs, who made a splendid 
talk. Hymns were rendered by Misses Mollie and Delia Morris, Pearle Boman, 
Messrs. H. F. Morris, H. D. Landers and others. Cleburne Post American Legion, 
and Chulafinnee W. O. W. conducted the burial services. Capt. Earl Jones made an 
impressive talk at the grave, after which the Woodmen took charge of and 
concluded the burial service. 
"Live nobly as they died, toiling for truth denied" "Loyal to something bigger 
than we are" "Something that swings the spirit to a star." 
Irvin was a member of Co. B, 326th Infantry, 82d Division, and fell near the 
Aire River, October 15, 1918, during the fiercest fighting in the Argonne 
offensive, in which more than 1,200,000 American soldiers the flower of the army 
was hurled Kaiserward, with a determination that nothing but death could stop, 
and did not stop until the Germans were defeated and the Armistice Signed. 
Men of the 326th Infantry and other units of the 82d Division and fell at times 
as rapidly as watch ticked off the seconds.  Offensives were waged oftenest in 
blackest of night, when it seemed as though we were plunging forward in the 
teeth of a terrific electric tornado, the streaks of fire, and flying shrapnel, 
as a veritable spray of molten lava thrown from the bowels of a maddened 
volcano, puncturing the blackness with a rain of red that was as merciless as 
the fire of hell; but the men of 82d kept going, their blood reddening the 
valley streams, but killing and capturing Germans as they plunged forward to 
victory or death Irvin to the latter.
"They sleep they took the chance" "In Italy, in Belgium in France". "For us they 
gave their youth to its last breath" "For us they plunged on into the gulf of 
death".

Additional Comments:
See photo:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/cleburne/photos/ayres11614gph.jpg

Joseph Irvin Ayres was the son of Patrick Jeptha Ayres and Martha Eugenia Currie. 

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/cleburne/obits/a/ayresala2642gob.txt

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