Sons of Men - Evansville's War Record
Gold Star Biographies
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1st Class Gunner's Mate Warren E. Labry United States Navy December 5, 1891 - September 17, 1918

   Theodore Roosevelt's teachings will long remain in the heart of
America, but his most characteristic exhortation was "the doctrine
not of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life
of toil and effort, of labor and strife." Warren E. Labry heard the
admonition of that great American. He joined the ranks of the industrial
army while he was still a boy, and when he reached maturity he entered
military service when America was still neutral in the World War.

   Warren E. Labry was born December 5, 1891, at Henderson, Ky.
He completed public school by the time he was thirteen.  For the
next four years he worked at a carriage factory. When he came to
Evansville at the age of seventeen he was employed at the Hercules
Buggy Co., as a top builder.  Four years later he went to Detroit,
Michigan, where he secured automobile work. A year later he returned
to Evansville, and to his former place of employment.

   On September 22, 1915, he enlisted for a four year term in the
navy.  After his final examination at Indianapolis, he was sent to
Norfolk, Va., where he remained in training for six months. He was
assigned to U. S. S. Pennsylvania.  During this period of his career
he was promoted to a first class gunner's mate.

   He was transferred to a torpedo school at Newport, R.I.,
June 22, 1918. On September 14, 1918, he had an attack of Spanish
Influenza. The illness developed into broncho-pneumonia. His parents
went to see him, and were present at his deathbed, September 17, 1918.
His body was sent to Evansville and laid to rest in the Oak Hill
Cemetery

   His record in the navy was perfect.  Death reached him four
days before his graduation from the torpedo school, where he was to
be an instructor, as a reward for honorable and faithful service.
_____

Sons of Men: Evansville's War Record,
Compiled by Heiman Blatt,
Published by Abe P. Madison, 1920
pp97-98.

cdmyers@wowway.com
October 25, 1998