RSU Professor Emerita Dr. Dana Gray
As the self-described “family genealogist,” RSU Professor Emerita Dr. Dana Gray is well-practiced with preserving her family’s history.
Old photographs, letters and other personal heirlooms can tell the story of the past as it unfolded in a way that voices from the present can’t.
Years ago, she received a box of such heirlooms from an aunt and this time – in addition to using them to tell the story of her family’s history – she collected them into a book about her uncle who served in WWII and died as a prisoner of war.
The name of the book is “The Price of Freedom – Clayton Franklin Howell: An American WWII Soldier in Bataan.”
“When my Aunt Bobbye passed away a few years ago, I received a box of
Clayton Franklin Howell
items from her,” Gray recalled. “Everyone knows I’m the family historian, so I wasn’t too surprised by that, but I was surprised – overwhelmed, really – at was just how much had been saved, so many artifacts about my uncle, Clayton Franklin Howell, who served in the military during World War II, endured the horrific Death March of Bataan and died a few months after that as a POW.”
After poring over the cache of photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, military documents and more,
Gray felt it important that her uncle’s story be shared to honor his life and legacy, as well as reminding present and future generations that freedom isn’t free.
Broken in
to three chapters – “Childhood,” “In the Army,” and “After His Death” – the book is filled with many of the photographs, handwritten and typed letters, newspaper articles and more from and about Dr. Gray’s uncle.
“One of the decisions I made early on in the writing process was to allow Uncle Clayton to tell his own story – I just wanted to be the messenger, to be able to package it in a readable form,” she said. “So, I pieced it all together to allow him to tell the story of his own life – and death – providing some historical context where necessary.”
Among the historical context included was the infamous Death March of Bataan in April 1942, which – unlike many unfortunate soldiers – Clayton endured and survived, only to be later moved to Cabanatuan POW Camp in the Philippines, and later, to Hoten Mukden POW Camp in Manchuria, where he would later die.
After Clayton was taken as a POW, his mother Mary reached out to countless people for news of her
Bataan medal
son and his unit, some of whom wrote back to her over the following months and years, with some of these correspondences included in the book.
“His letters…he shared, you can see in them his wit and his hope…he truly believed he was going to come home someday, return from the war, but it didn’t happen that way for him,” Gray said. “He died at age 23 in Manchuria as a POW.”
Although Gray admitted writing the book was difficult at times, she felt it was important now, more than ever, to share the reality that preserving freedom can sometimes come at the cost of one’s own life.
In addition to being Gray’s uncle, Clayton Howell also was the uncle of Kristal Tomshany, who has served as an RSU Fine Arts faculty member.
“The Price of Freedom – Clayton Franklin Howell: An American WWII soldier in Bataan” is available through Amazon and free to those with Kindle Unlimited.