Marion Thornton, Jr., was born on August 29, 1923, to Marion Thornton and Elizabeth Bailey Thornton of Brownsville, Tennessee. On February 4, 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Thornton trained at Harlingen Army Airfield in Texas and Air Corps Technical School at Keesler Field, Biloxi, Mississippi. His letters also indicate that he traveled to Brazil, England, and Ireland. Thornton was killed on July 5, 1944, in a mid-air collision in English air space during a training mission. At the time of his death, Thornton held the USAAF rank of technical sergeant, abbreviated as TSGT or T/SGT.
This collection is mainly composed of Thornton's letters to his cousin, Elizabeth (Libba) Claiborne, née Pittman, from 1943-1944 while he was serving in the USAAF. Claiborne was born on March 8, 1927, to Otho Pittman and Ruth Thornton Pittman in Brownsville, Tennessee. Ruth had seven brothers and so daughter Libba had 20 first cousins, of which Marion, Jr., was one. Libba Pittman Claiborne attended Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She was married to Alex Claiborne and together they had two sons, Al and Robert. Elizabeth (Libba) Pittman Claiborne died on March 22, 2020, in her native Brownsville.
Sources:
This collection contains Thornton's letters to Elizabeth (Libba) Pittman, totalling 21 pieces of mail: 19 letters from Thornton, including one sent using the V-mail microfilm post system; 2 postcards from Thornton; and one letter by Libba that was returned to sender with a note on the envelope stating that Thornton was deceased. A booklet that includes transcripts of all correspondence, along with digitized images, is also included in this collection and can be accessed at a site maintained by the donor, Dr. Al Claiborne: https://tinyurl.com/Marion-Thornton
Marion Thornton, Jr., Letters (MS928), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
This collection is open for use.
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Donated by Dr. Al Claiborne, WFU's Center for Structural Biology, son of Elizabeth Pittman Claiborne.