FREESTONE PAST/PRESENT
J.R. (Sonny) Sessions

LST 666 REUNION
 
Recently Grandma and I and shipmate and his wife from Stigler, Okla. traveled 
to Evansville, Indiana on the Ohio River for re-union of a few of the crew of the 
LST 666 and a tour of the LST 325 which is berthed there. We have been 
meeting like this since our first gathering in Wilmington, N.C in 1994 and have 
done so in various locations in the U.S. There were over 1,000 LST’s built and 
used in WWII with only two left in the U.S. many were built in this area along 
the Ohio River then carried down the Mississippi to the ocean. The 666 was built 
near Pittsburgh and commissioned in 1944 then serving the Pacific until he end 
of the War. This probably be the last one as all the crew in their 80’s and few 
able to attend or travel long distances and many deceased. There another LST 
meeting group in Evansville with only two of its crew there, the rest of the group 
were the widows and descendents of the original crew. Some call the LST 666 the 
Devil’s Ship.
  Evansville a nice place to visit, it is 900 miles from home; but just south of there 
in Kentucky my mothers sister Mary lived here much of her life, there also a 
cousin Mattie Clyde Bonner who born in Woodland along with  McLeod family 
member from the Wortham area. Small world sometimes.
  Pleasant trip with our Oklahoma friends Hershel & Ramona Prentice whose 
ancestry with the Choctaw tribe goes back to the l820’s when they made the Trail 
of Tears to Oklahoma after being driven out of Mississippi. Hershel Prentice was 
the radar man on LST 666. Stigler the County seat of Haskell Co. is near Eufaula 
where Texas outlaw Tehuacana Bill Posey met his death in a gun battle with 
Indian Police. Also near here outlaw Belle Starr was ambushed and killed, she 
and her husband Tom made lots of tracks in Texas, Tom also died in a hail of 
bullets in another fight. 

                                   ***
                   Sheriff’s Office l967
  There so many incidents it hard to decide which to use for this period.
Two men using car hood made into a boat capsized in Richland Creek 
floodwaters at FR 488, one drowned with extensive search over several days until 
body located where Creek joins Lindsey Slough by Game Warden Bergstrom 
and myself
when crows seen picking at something in the water. Assisted in search by 
Corsicana Emergency Corps and started long friendship with James Sikes, Otis 
Dunagan and others including Kirven friend “Little Butch” Butcher who helped 
form the Freestone Co. Emergency Corps and Reserve Deputies. Mother of 
victim l00 years old about blind would not go to nursing home until I talked to 
her.
  Judge Williford and I to Leon Co. funeral for Constable J.D. Coburn.
Elderly Kirvin man who supposed to be fortune teller reading coffee grounds, 
lost faith in him when let traveling con men take him for his cash.  Dozer 
operator fatally burned when dug into pipeline near Streetman. Coffield TDC 
Unit fish fry, always fun put on by Warden Bounds.
  Worked bigamy case where the only women mad were the mothers in laws. 
Drowning Buffalo Hole. Judge Ferguson jailed man who came to court drunk.
Teague “flasher” jailed. Got Comm. Court to purchase two-way radio for 
Wortham Mayor Walker. Friend transported to Temple  
VA hospital 3am.
  Donie armed bank robbery, two Brazos Co. subjects jailed. Old County Jail 
building dedicated for County Museum. Co. Att. Fryer our prosecutor and I 
learned under the laws then it not illegal to try to try to steal cattle but never in 
possession. 
                                     ***
                      Grandpa’s Report
  ...
  Attended JR and Tigna Manahan’s 65th anniversary, in the beautiful home of 
Jim and Kathleen McKee. JR has been a special friend more than 75 years. 
When my family lived in the old Co. Jail; when my Daddy went in as Sheriff in 
l931 and I was 5 years old and JR working in the Sidney Johnson Drug Store on 
the west side of the square across the street, he was very kind to me and I always 
enjoyed his friendship. Go back nearly as long with Tigna Steele’s family, Macy 
and TC who blind but a telephone operator deluxe.
  ...