Obituary of MITCHELL B. SUMRALL, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana

Copied and Submitted by: Doug McBroom, 15520 Swan Lake Blvd., Gulfport, MS 
39503

From The Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal; Jena, LaSalle Parish, La.  
Microfilm at the LaSalle Parish Library located in Jena, LaSalle Parish, La.

Many Thanks to The Times - Signal and to the LaSalle Parish Library for 
allowing the following to be added to the Archives.





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Date:  February 24, 1944

Headline:  Mitchell Sumrall, former Jena Boy, Missing in NW Pacific

Mitchell B. Sumrall, former Jena and Shreveport resident and copilot of a 
Navy plane operated by Pan American Airlines, is reported missing as a result 
of a crash in the Pacific Northwest, the Navy Department notified his mother, 
Mrs. L. O. Sumrall of Little Rock, Arkansas.

The plane crashed Thursday while en route from the Pacific Northwest base to 
Seattle, Wash., with 14 persons on board, including five Navy members.  Navy 
pilots who have been searching the vicinity reported they had sighted 
wreckage and a floating lifeboat.  However, no trace of the survivors has 
been found.

Sumrall moved to Jena with his parents about 1922 and lived here fourteen 
years.  He received his grammar schooling and three years of high school 
here, graduating after the family moved to Monroe.

Mitchell's father, Mr. L. O. Sumrall, is Regional Supervisor for Farm 
Security, with headquarters in Little Rock, Ark.

Sumrall received his training under the Centenary College Civilian Pilot 
Training Program in cooperation with the Badgett Flying School in February 
1942.  He was assigned duty with the Ferry Command in March 1942, and was 
sent to North Africa to ferry bombers and fighters to the front.

In November 1943, he and his wife were visitors to Shreveport.  He left there 
the first of December for Seattle, Wash., where he was employed as a copilot 
by the Pan American Airlines on a run from Seattle to the Pacific Northwest.

His wife, the former Miss Laverne Carmichael of Arcadia, was formerly 
employed by the Morris and Dickson Drug Company on Fairfield Avenue.  She 
resides in Seattle, Wash.