News, Citizen Profile, Marion Lee Greer, LaSalle Parish, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Submitted by Craig Franklin and The Jena Times From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Jena, LA June 27, 2001 Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the Archives. A Times-Signal feature "Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute Marion Lee Greer Ц Citizen Profile For this 87 year-old Hurricane Creek man, God, family, hard work and good friends are what life is really about. Marion Lee Greer was born on January 4, 1914, on the outskirts of Trout, to John Moses and Minnie Ola Brister Greer. "I was born outside of Trout, where the L&A (Creek) crosses the Funny Louie (Creek)," Mr. Greer said. "Daddy had a little farm there and we always ate green peaches and watermelons." His father worked in the logging woods for 32 years with the Bodcow Company, where he drove a mule team hauling logs. His mother was a devote housewife, tending to all of the family's needs. "My mother spent all of her time standing over a cook stove," he said. "I come from a family of nine children, so she was always cooking." The Greer family had five boys and four girls, so with that many children, meals were quite a chore for their mother. "If you had a place to eat you better get in it," Mr. Greer continued. "If you didn't it might be all gone." He attended Good Pine during his school years, and went until halfway through the ninth grade, when he decided to quit school and start working. "I took a team and wagon and went to hauling cross ties," he said. "That was a big job in those days." He hauled the cross ties for about two years, until he was around 13 or 14 years old. It was then his family moved to White Rock, just below Walter Dayton's home on La. Hwy. 8. Mr. Greer went to work for Mr. Lee Dayton (Walter's brother) when he was 14, helping work the cattle ranch. "He started me out in the cow business and I've been in it ever since," Mr. Greer said. "He had about 600 or 700 head of cattle and it was a full-time job." Two years later, Mr. Greer went to work for Walter Dayton, who at that time had about 1,100 head of cattle. "It was hard work everyday, from early in the morning Сtil late at night," he said. "I worked for him for the next twelve years, until I went into the service." Mr. Greer was 28 years old in 1942 when he was drafted into the Army during World War II. He was considered an old man by many of the soldiers, even though he hadn't reached his 30th birthday. "I was in the Army Air Force, the 12th Air Force and the 15th Air Force," he said. "It was mostly made up of older men, many were a lot older than I was." His company was an ordinance outfit, which first landed in North Africa, then Corsica Island, then traveled right up the "boot" of Italy. When the war was finally over, the company wound up in Austria. "I don't care what these television shows say, I am not a hero," Mr. Greer said, speaking about his service during W.W. II. "I'm a survivor. The real heroes left their blood and lives over there." He said he's not sure why there has been a lot of emphasis on WW II lately on television and in the movies, but on one hand, he's glad it's happening. "The young people need to know what men went through during that war," he said. "I don't know why they are showing a lot of war movies lately, other than trying to show the young people why they are free." While serving with the ordinance outfit, Mr. Greer drove the shop truck and a 6X6 daily. "There were three sections to our outfit," he said. "We had the automotive section, the small arms section and the artillery section. I was in the artillery section." His outfit would stay just behind the front line, and repair vehicles and weapons so they could be put back into service. "Sometimes we'd be 10 or 12 miles behind the line, and other times we'd be pretty close Ц about a mile or so," he said. "Usually, we stayed between 1 1/2 to 4 miles behind the front line." Mr. Greer was assigned to work on the larger guns, such as the 50 calibers, the 20 millimeters and the 37 millimeters. Once they repaired the guns, they would then have to test fire all of them before they would be allowed to go back into service. One of Mr. Greer's best friends during the war was actually his senior officer in the ordinance outfit. He was a man named Y.B. Heathcock. The two men went through training together, went overseas together, and throughout the war they stayed in the same outfit together. They even stayed in the same tent together and on more than one occasion, shared the same foxhole together. Even though Mr. Heathcock was the shop foreman and technically Mr. Greer's boss, the two were more like brothers than anything else. Their friendship grew and grew, and did not end after the war. "He is from Devine, Texas, and we've been seeing each other at least once a year for the past 60 years," Mr. Greer said. "He is a deacon at Devine Baptist Church and I'm a deacon at Hurricane Creek Baptist Church. There is no way to tell you about how I feel about that man." Mr. Greer said that in his outfit, there were many good men, many of who were older than he was. "I was 28, but there was a lot of older men in our company than me," he said. "Many of them had gray heads. If you wanted to know something, you didn't ask the young ones, you asked the gray haired ones. The young ones didn't know anything." Mr. Greer said that despite how some war movies despite men during war, such as them having no fear, there was actually a lot of praying going on by the soldiers. "Our company did a lot of praying," he said. "We were awful good about going to church on Sundays when we didn't have a lot of work to do. We had a chaplain and he'd lead the services. Most of the men were very private, but among themselves there was a lot of praying going on." When the war was over, many of the men in Mr. Greer's company, including Mr. Greer didn't have enough points to be discharged from service. So the company was sent to the Pacific, by way of the Panama Canal, and ended up in the Philippines. "We unloaded all of our equipment and then turned it in before we could leave," he said. "After I was discharged I went straight home. I got home on Christmas Eve morning, December 24, at 1 a.m. That was a dandy present." It had been three years and four months since he'd been home, including 27 months overseas. Mr. Greer said that he was one happy man when he finally made it back to LaSalle Parish. One of the reasons he was so happy to be home, had to do with a beautiful young lady he'd gotten engaged to some eight months before being drafted into the Army. "I told her we wouldn't get married until I got back (from the war)," he said. "She said she would wait on me and she did. So on January 12, 1946; I married Audrey Frazier. We'd been engaged for four years." Over the next few years the couple would raise two children, John Greer, who now lives across the road from his father, and Dianne Greer Hamlin, who now lives in Channel View, Texas. Altogether, he has four grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. After their marriage, Mr. Greer once again went to work tending cattle, raising a herd of cattle of his own and developing them into one of the larger herds in the area. He had actually started raising his own herd when he was 13, while working for the Dayton's. That year in 1927, he bought himself one milk cow. His brother also bought a milk cow, but soon decided to sell his. So, Mr. Greer bought his brother's milk cow and his herd grew to two. By the time he left to go to war, he had a herd of 30 cattle, which his father tended to while Mr. Greer served his country. Sadly, his father died while Mr. Greer was away from home in the service, just six months before he was allowed to come home. "I found out about him dying by a telegraph," Mr. Greer said. "Even though the war was over, I could not go home to bury my daddy because they (government) said they needed us in the Pacific." Following the war, he was also able to attend school through a program of the G.I. Bill. He attended classes at the Fellowship School house on farming for four years. When he finished, he went to work for the Hercules Powder Company for about two years, and then worked for Ted Trichell's contracting company for another two years. Bt this time, his own cattle herd had reached about 175 in number and was providing a good source of added income for his family. In 1959, Mr. Greer went to work for the LaSalle Parish School Board as a bus driver. He would work the next twenty years, until he retired in 1979. All of this time, he continued to work the cattle that he'd fell in love with as a young teenage boy. Probably one of the most life-changing events that ever happened to Mr. Greer occurred when he was 35 years old. It was in 1949, he was married, had already served his time in the war, and was working on raising his family. This was the year that he was saved and baptized at Hurricane Creek Baptist Church. "I was saved during a service at Hurricane Creek Baptist Church, but I was baptized in Hurricane Creek," he said. "I'll never forget when I was baptized, not only because of what it meant, but also because at the time Hurricane Creek was the coldest water in the parish. Man it was cold." Since that "cold" day, Mr. Greer has been a faithful member of his community church, passing 52 years this year. He was ordained as a deacon in 1970 and served as an adult Sunday School teacher for 25 years. Serving his Lord is something that he has never regretted. "I tell the young people that if you're going to raise a family, don't mess around," he said. "Raise your family in church. The Bible says to train up a child in the Lord and when he is old he will not depart. They may go away for a while, but if you've raised them up in the Lord, they will come back." He continued to say that he has trouble-understanding people who don't believe in God or believe the Bible. "I can't understand people who don't believe God's Word," he said. "The problem is, they have to be taught. We have so many younger folks that don't know because they weren't taught that by their parents." One of the saddest days in Mr. Greer's life came in 1989, when his wife of 43 years passed away. "Me and Audrey had 39 wonderful years together then she had a stroke," he said. "Four years and 14 days later she passed away. She was really a good wife and was the prize of LaSalle Parish when I married her." Mr. Greer initially said that he would never re-marry after his wife died. But several months living alone had him changing his mind."I said I never would marry again," he said. "But it was tough to look at these blank walls all day long."After much thought and prayer, Mr. Greer did remarry two years after his first wife's passing. In August of 1991, he married Ruby Gulde. In just a couple of months, the two will celebrate their 10th Wedding Anniversary. Even though Mr. Greer is 87 years old, he said that he really doesn't feel that old. "They tell me I'm getting old and I tell them no Ц I've already arrived," he said. "But age doesn't matter, it's your health that counts. So far, God has been gracious to me in that area." Although officially retired, Mr. Greer said he still hasn't stopped working and never will."I enjoy working," he said. "I'm kind of like Shep Frazier and what he said one time. Shep had open-heart surgery and shortly after he was out working and his wife told him he'd better stop that or he was going to die. He said, СMama, I want to get you straight on this here business. If I can't work, I don't want to live.' And that's exactly how I feel." Mr. Greer still works his cows, although his herd is much smaller these days. With the passage of the recent parish stock law, he's had to size down his herd as he's moved them inside the fences. "This is the first year that I've had to keep cows up all these 60 years," he said. "It was the stock-law that was passed and we don't need it." Along with working his small herd, Mr. Greer also enjoys brim fishing in Kitterlin Creek Bay, and no matter what the weather is doing, every year he always manages to make a good garden. He also continues to do his own mowing and keeping up his house and yard. "I'm a happy man," he concluded. "I know where I'm going and how I'm getting there." This week, we salute Mr. Marion Greer as our Citizen Profile, and thank him for reminding us of how our priorities should be: God, family, and friends. His life is truly an example of how to place others above one's self. # $ a c ' " й л q/ s/ ъ5 √ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ H* 5 CJ$ # $ Ц ┴ ю ц Ч н n ╙ Ш / ¤ V ¤ w 4 , ╖ ¤ √ ∙ Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё Ё $ Д░ `Д░ a$ # $ Ц ┴ ю ц Ч н n ╙ Ш / ¤ V ¤ w 4 , ╖ з k р ╥ u М } [ ▓ В w !! 9" 4# ї# A% ─% ╛& Є' ) * N+ ║+ И, щ, ╝- B. н. Й/ ▐/ Ы0 ў0 \2 3 ▒3 ╢4 5 д5 ъ5 № · E╖ з k р ╥ u М } [ ▓ В w !! 9" 4# ї# A% ─% ╛& Є' ) * N+ ║+ И, щ, ╝- Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў Ў $ Д░ `Д░ a$ ╝- B. н. 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