Jimmie Frank Warren (1923 - 1946)

Born 9 Dec 1923 in Protestant Hospital, Baker City, Oregon

Ancestors

Died 11 Apr 1946 at age 22 in San Francisco, California

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Lola Cain [send private message]

Biography

Jimmie Frank Warren - Snippets and memories gathered from his sister Jeannine Warren October 2007 (with additions by his older sister LaRene December 2007)

Jimmie Frank Warren was born December 9, 1923 in Baker, Oregon - - but spent most of his childhood in Hereford.

Even though it is easy to ‘saint-ize’ someone who has died too young, in Jimmie’s case it would just be true – he was an all-around wonderful guy.

As a teenager he worked for the local farmers – mostly the Trimble’s – and he was an excellent worker. They couldn’t praise him enough for how good a worker he was. He drove horses or whatever they asked him to do. Part of the time while he was in high school he worked for Paul Engle*, who also praised him highly. They would go all along the telephone lines from Hereford to Unity at least. That was where he found many rattle snake rattles to add to his collection. They would just run into dens of them, so they’d kill the ones that were in their way – but there were lots.

He was on honor roll for his high school, and he was a great basketball player. Actually he and Jimmie Shull played basketball together. (They became brothers-in-law when Jimmie Shull married Jimmie Warren's sister, Alberta.) The two Jimmie’s were good friends. The other winter sport that he just loved was ice skating and he was very good at it. He loved to jump and all of the other things you can do. Jimmie (Warren) also liked to hunt.

Jimmie's Grandfather Warren owned and ran the local store in Hereford, but Jimme's dad, Frank Warren, had the garage. All of the local farmers depended on him for their equipment so it was for far more than just cars.

Jimmie had a lead foot when it came to driving – just like Jeannine.

When he was younger, one of his favorite sports was to go hunting with his beanie flipper. He shot rabbits and squirrels, and brought the rabbits home to eat. He also helped his mother milk and take care of the animals a lot.

Jimmie started dating LaVelle after he had been away from home for a while working in Portland. Some time after he came back he started dating her. He used to go up and have Sunday dinner with them sometimes.

They always had a contest of who got the biggest deer each season, and just before he left he got the biggest deer that year - - about 300 pounds. After they brought their deer home, they would take it down to the garage and hoist it up on the pulley that held motors and that is how they would clean it [aka butcher it]. They all loved venison.

First of all he went to Portland to work in the shipyards after he graduated from high school.

His papers telling him he was to be inducted into the service came to Hereford, which was his mailing address. His mother called and told him so he immediately went down and enlisted in the Navy, because that is what he wanted to do if he had to go in. He would have preferred to stay home and pursue an education.

He was sent to Camp Farragut in northern Idaho for basic training. They had some pool that was a type of tank that was fairly deep and they would just shove guys in and tell them to swim. One guy said he couldn’t swim – but they shoved him in anyway – and while he was yelling, “I can’t swim! I can’t swim,” he swam like crazy.

Jimmie was commissioned on the Navy destroyer U S S Johnston as a Fireman Third Class and he worked up to First class, which means he was on a gun – a gunner.

He went out and was out there a long time before his ship was sunk – and it was sunk in the largest battle of the Pacific during WWII. They were in a typhoon just before that during which they had lost almost all of their lifeboats, so when the ship was hit and they knew it was going to go down, they just had to dive off and hope they would survive.

They were in the water for 56 hours, and then were rescued. As soon as he got back to San Francisco, he was given a month’s furlough while they were getting the next destroyer ready to go.

During the month-long furlough that occurred after the U S S Johnston was sunk and the time of being back waiting for the next ship to be ready and commissioned to go out, he reconnected with LaVelle and before he shipped out, she went down to San Francisco and they were married. They had about 2 months together before it was time for the destroyer to ship out.

When the second ship, the U S S Niagara, was ready to be commissioned, he called his Mom and told her, and Lola decided she wanted to be there for it. It was the next day after setting out on that trip that Lola died from the injuries sustained in the car wreck that occurred near Jordan Valley.

It was only because the U S S Niagara was not yet quite ready to ship out that he was able to be there for Lola’s funeral. After the funeral, he returned to San Francisco to his duties. He was on the destroyer for the time he was scheduled to be on it. After he came back, the night before he was to be discharged he and LaVelle went out to dinner to celebrate that he was going to be out of the service, and after dinner he went out to hail a taxi. The taxi didn’t stop and as he turned around to go back to the curb, an oncoming car hit him, threw him up on the hood of the car and knocked him unconscious. He never regained consciousness.

He only lived 8 days, and never came out of the coma. Jimmie died April 11, 1946, at the age of 22, about 13 months after his mother, Lola, had died.

Sources

Family information as told to Lola Rice Cain

CITING THIS RECORD - 1930 Census "United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XC9W-N71 : accessed 27 February 2016), James F Warren in entry for Frank Warren, 1930.

I have never heard anyone refer to him as James - but that is how he was listed in the 1930 Census.

CITING THIS RECORD - 1940 Census "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRR6-7W5 : accessed 27 February 2016), Jimmie G Warren in household of Frank M Warren, Hereford Election Precinct, Baker, Oregon, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 1-32, sheet 1A, family 7, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 3352.

CITING THIS RECORD - Death record April 11, 1946 "California, San Francisco County Records, 1824-1997", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKD4-PWS5 : accessed 1 March 2016), Jimmie Frank Warren, 1946.

CITING THIS RECORD - Death record (confirms birth date) "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPK9-8BT : accessed 1 March 2016), Jimmie Frank Warren, 11 Apr 1946; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.

CITING THIS RECORD - Burial Record - Mount Hope Cemetery, Baker, Oregon "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVPQ-ZB11 : accessed 1 March 2016), Jimmie Frank Warren, 1946; Burial, Baker City, Baker, Oregon, United States of America, Mount Hope Cemetery; citing record ID 136285958, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.