Columbus and the Home Front (World War II) Part 4

SOURCES: Columbus and the Home Front: Memories of Columbus, Georgia During World War II. Shaw High School Young Historians, 2007. Images are from the project book, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, and the Library of Congress (1940 and 1941).

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Janet Ann Lilienthal Cohn – interviewed by B.J. Chapman and Jamie Bankston (2006)

Janet Ann Lilienthal was born in Selma, Alabama on September 2, 1921. At the age of two, she and her family moved to Columbus. Her mother, Ruth Gump Lilienthal and her father, Lesley H. Lilienthal, sold ladies fine clothing. In 1923, with the establishment of Fort Benning, it made sense to move the business to Columbus. In those days, the officers' wives were well dressed by both custom and tradition and formed a large market for the Kayser-Lilienthal line of clothing (the store was a fixture in Columbus until 1972). Generals' wives like Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Stillwell did their shopping there.

During her childhood, Mrs. Cohn lived at 1416 Wildwood Avenue (current image below), two blocks from Wynnton School. She attended Wynnton Grammar School, then Columbus High School. She remembers with pleasure the school librarian at the time, Mrs. Blackman, who encouraged all the students to read. Although not involved in school athletics, Mrs. Cohn danced ballet during high school. She received "B's" and "C's" as a student and recalls with a smile that she could have attended college but got her M-R-S degree instead – marrying a young Army officer by the name of Aaron Cohn on June 19, 1941.

On December 7, 1941, they were attending a movie in downtown Columbus. Upon exiting the theater after the show, they noticed newspaper boys selling a special edition of the newspaper announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor. "We were devastated," says Mrs. Cohn, and of course it was understood that her husband would soon be going off to war.

Everyone in the community wanted to help support the war effort. With her husband training with his unit, and now with a new baby, Mrs. Cohn's life centered around her baby and her parents, who were wonderfully supportive. Although she fondly remembers eating occasionally at Spano's Restaurant, which specialized in "down-home" cooking, she spent much of her free time working at the USO Club, which provided meals for the soldiers, dances on the weekends, and a refuge for homesick boys who just wanted to talk to someone. Mrs. Cohn remembers knitting scarves and socks for soldiers overseas. Later, when her husband deployed, she would send him boxes of nonperishable food items through the mail on a weekly basis.

Because of the long turn-around time in receiving mail, she did not find out until much later that most of the packages never made it to her husband. Many others in the community were doing similar activities. Her father sent weekly packages of cigarettes and cigars to overseas soldiers. Churches and synagogues were also active in supporting the war effort as well. The temple which Mrs. Cohn attended encouraged their members to take soldiers home on Fridays and weekends for a hot meal, and her parents regularly invited 6 – 8 soldiers at a time. They were grateful for the food and the attention.

Rationing was a way of life during the war. Mrs. Cohn recalls that most people accepted rationing as a necessary sacrifice and that there was little complaining. Some rationed items could be purchased on a point basis. Certain meats, such as lamb and steak, required amassing a certain number of points or coupons for purchase. Coupons could be swapped with others in order to get the right number of the right coupons. Mrs. Cohn's parents owned an automobile, and gasoline rationing curtailed traveling; once again, it was understood that the war effort took priority.

As more and more soldiers began to deploy overseas, the stress of having relatives, husbands, and friends in harm's way began to mount. In addition to her husband, Mrs. Cohn's 19-year-old brother also enlisted, although he was exempt from the draft. Spurning the opportunity to become an officer, he trained as an infantryman and went overseas as one of many replacements to fill the ranks in combat units. Her father was in his store when he received a telegram saying that his son had been injured in combat and was being evacuated to England. Concerned but relieved, the family awaited further word. It came a week later when another telegram informed them that the son had died on the same day of his injury. Now, in addition to worrying about her husband (an officer with the 3d Cavalry in Patton's 3d Army), she also had to comfort her parents. She drew solace from other wives who were in the same situation-they encouraged each other and tried to keep a positive attitude.

In this respect, news from the fronts was usually tardy, inaccurate, and lacking in detail. News reports on the radio were censored, as were letters arriving from soldiers overseas. People found themselves trying to second-guess the reports to figure out what was happening. The news of the Normandy invasion was a boost to home morale, and it seemed like the war was nearing an end. Then other reports would come in that would dash these hopes. Nevertheless, everyone was convinced that the allies would prevail.

When the war ended, there was celebration in Columbus, but for those with soldiers overseas, more a feeling of great relief. Mrs. Cohn met her husband in Augusta, from which he had left her almost exactly two years earlier. He was 20 pounds lighter and appeared gaunt and haggard. In the vanguard of the 3d Army, his unit had participated in the liberation of one of the many concentration camps in Germany. As the first American to arrive in the camp, armed and in uniform, he told her that initially the inmates mistook him for a Nazi guard and shrank away from him. He addressed them in German, and after they understood who he was, they literally kissed his hands and feet. It was an experience that he would never forget, and one that he would tell about many times through the years to different audiences when talking about the Holocaust and its impact. As of this year, the Cohn's have been married for 65 years and are still active professionally and socially in the community. (2006)

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John R. Kinnett, Jr. – interviewed by B.J. Chapman, Julien Malebranch, and Christal Judge

John Robertson Kinnett, Jr. was born April 4, 1927. At the time that World War II broke out he was still in high school and living with his family in a house at 1408 Wildwood Avenue (current image below). The Kinnett's helped with the wartime housing shortage by renting out a bedroom in their house, as well as an apartment in back of their house.

John was too young to enlist in the army, but he did work in his father's dairy. His father, John, Sr., was the owner of Kinnett Dairies (originally located on Sixth Avenue at 13th Street), which was a staple here in Columbus until recently.

John also shared that both his great grandfather and grandfather had worked in the Eagle and Phenix Mill. It was his grandfather's brother who got into the grocery business, then into the ice cream business.

He chuckled as he remembered working at the dairy at age thirteen, printing labels for the ice cream which was delivered to Ft. Benning. When he got a little older, he worked in the cold storage room, where it would get to be twenty degrees below zero. At that time, they didn't wear any insulated gear. All they had were T-shirts and maybe some coveralls. He said the hours were long and it was very cold.

Of course, when he wasn't at work he was at school. At that time, he was attending Columbus High. He did three things while in school, "play basketball and football, and keep my grades up." The football team was very good from what he can remember. In fact, they traveled as far as Miami, Florida, and Chattanooga, Tennessee to play championship games.

It was during these high school years, when he was sixteen, that he met the woman that he would one day marry. He said he would never forget that day. It was the first time that his father had ever let him take the car out by himself. He was going to a social set up by the Hi Y Club. That's where they met and the rest is history.

For young people at that time there were a couple of places that were known to be popular spots. His favorite places were Goo Goo’s on Linwood Avenue and Choppie’s on 4th and 2nd. He said his favorite thing to get was a steak sandwich that they served. Since it was a drive-in, you needed a car. He didn't have one, so he said they would bum a ride from someone that could drive. That's how he got around some of the time, just hitchhiking here and there whenever there was a need; but the main mode of transportation was his bicycle. He only lived a few blocks away from the school. Plus, this helped to cut back on gas since it was being rationed.

He can remember other things like eggs and sugar being rationed as well. At that time, Well's Dairy sold milk, Kinnett Dairies sold ice cream. As an ice cream producer, the company would need sugar in order to produce the ice cream. Sugar supplies were limited for making civilian ice cream. However, ice cream produced for the military and shipped to Ft. Benning had no restrictions. The rationing didn't put them out of business, but it surely didn't help.

He also mentioned that gas and tires were rationed. Mr. Kinnett remembers gas rationing being here in Columbus, but not across the river in Phenix City. There were a few other things that he remembers about Phenix City, but they weren't too "kosher." He did say good things about the residents, though. The dairy did get some of its milk from farmers in Phenix City and elsewhere in Alabama. In fact, to the best of his memory a lot of the problems in Phenix City didn't come from the residents but from visitors, the soldiers, to be more specific. He said they would go over there starting fights with each other and civilians. That's why he wasn't really allowed to go over to that side of the river.

By 1944 he had finished high school. He ended up going to Georgia Tech. He recalls getting rides to school or sometimes using the "Man O' War," a train that went from Columbus to Atlanta, as his modes of transportation. Shortly after starting school, he enlisted in the Navy. The war ended before he had a chance to go overseas.

When asked why he chose the Navy, Mr. Kinnett explained that "so many soldiers were dating Columbus girls, it turned many guys to the navy." He did add, though, that he didn't like the Navy all that that much, either. Some of his other friends, though, fought in the war. He told us about one of his friends from high school that died in the Pacific. They played football together. He graduated one year after his friend.

Mr. Kinnett still remembers what was going on when he heard Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He was outside with some friends playing backyard football across from the present location of the Burger King on Wynnton Road, when someone came outside and told them what had just happened. He also remembers his feelings about the bombing of Japan. He said he was happy, not because people were being killed, but because the end of the war was that much closer. At that time no one wanted all those people to die but "it needed to be ended."

When asked about the famous Kadie, the Kinnett cow, he noted that Kadie didn't arrive until the new dairy plant opened in 1967 near the airport. One of the workers had seen a similar cow on display in Florida, and the dairy decided to get one for its new location.

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Walter T. Lunsford, Sr., as related by Mrs. Lula Lunsford Huff

Walter Theophilus Lunsford, Sr. was born in 1916, the fifth of six children born to Watson Thomas and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Mae Lunsford of Columbus, Georgia. The first four of their children died in infancy. Walter's sister Lula (for whom his daughter is named) also lived in Columbus and married Dr. William S. Odom, of Columbus.

Walter Lunsford's father, Watson T. Lunsford, grew up on what is now Fort Benning. Watson lived on Five Miles Road - which was five miles from downtown Columbus. Forced to move when the U.S. Army acquired their land, the Lunsfords moved to the "Bottom" - the area at the foot of Wynn's Hill, where many Blacks in segregated Columbus lived. It was here where Watson met his future wife, Lizzie Mae, whose family also ran a successful grocery store like Watson's family.

After marriage, the two families' grocery stores were operated as one. The Lunsfords' children, Walter and Lula, worked with their parents in their family businesses. Walter graduated from William H. Spencer High School in 1933 at the age of 16. High schools in Columbus at that time ended with the 11th grade. He graduated with honors, having served as class treasurer, and delivered the Ivy Oration at his graduation ceremony. Walter went on to attend Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and then the University of Chicago, majoring in physics. He also enjoyed studies that he took at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. (Mrs. Huff recalled that he was adventurous and always had a "mechanical kind of mind." He loved to take things apart to see how they worked.)

Above: Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lunsford

When Walter Lunsford returned to Columbus, he became the town's first Black pilot, having taken lessons in Wisconsin when he was unable to get lessons at home. In July 1939, he married the former Sally M. Bryant, a recent graduate of Spencer High who received a scholarship to attend Fort Valley State College. The two formed a partnership that produced 10 children and numerous successful businesses. Walter and Sally both inherited their parents' entrepreneurial talents.

With World War II looming on the horizon, the United States instituted the nation's first peacetime draft. The local draft board selected Walter, a move that the family felt was in retaliation for Walter's mother's deep political involvement within the Black community. Walter's service lasted about one month, when it was discovered that he had flat feet and attempts at surgery were unsuccessful. Thus, he was unqualified to serve and received an honorable discharge. What was a loss for the Army turned out to be a substantial gain for Columbus and the Black community. The Lunsford family would form a bond with the Black soldiers who trained at Fort Benning that would last beyond the war years.

Soon after Walter and Sally's marriage, Sally opened a restaurant on 9th Street called The Annex. Mrs. Huff smiled at the irony of this, because in the early days of their marriage, her mother was not a particularly good cook. Sally's mother once asked Walter how things were going in their new life together, and Walter responded that things were okay, except that Sally couldn't cook. Sally's mother told him, "If you wanted a cook, you should have married a cook."

Mrs. Huff drew a map of the area which was bordered by 8th and 9th Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues. This was the commercial hub of the Black community of Columbus at that time. Adjacent were several two- and three-story row houses, drug stores, restaurants, funeral homes, professional offices, a haberdashery, a dance and piano school, and churches. It was also the location ("Magic Corner") of the Pierce Building, a three-story brick building that housed a 3rd floor auditorium where Walter brought in big band orchestras and entertainers. It was here that soldiers from Fort Benning were deposited on the bus route from Post. Fort Benning had always had a contingent of Black soldiers - beginning with the 24th Infantry Regiment that had arrived in 1922. It was the 24th Regiment that provided the labor that built many of the early Post facilities, including Doughboy Stadium.

Getting back to Post posed a major problem after the buses ended their runs, especially for Black soldiers. There was no taxi service in Columbus that served Blacks. Thus, was born one of many entrepreneurial ventures begun by Walter Lunsford - the Red Bird Cab Company, located at the corner of 6th Avenue and 8th Street (Shell Service Station). Walter would add two other taxi companies over the following years, the Checker Cab Company and the Blue Bird Company.

When asked why he incorporated three cab companies instead of just expanding the one, Mrs. Huff explained that it all involved liability. By splitting assets into different corporations, a lawsuit brought against one in case of an accident would not affect the other two, thereby limiting her father's exposure to a greater liability. At one point, the three businesses combined employed 100 drivers, and provided the largest Black employment in Columbus.

By 1941, it was recognized within the Black community that a recreational facility for Black soldiers was badly needed, especially as the number of Black soldiers being trained at Fort Benning was increasing significantly. White soldiers already had a facility in the downtown area. With the encouragement of Black community leader E. E. Farley (a local realtor who later developed Carver Heights), Walter's mother, Lizzie Mae, provided $15,000 to build a USO/YMCA for Black soldiers. It opened with much fanfare on July 27, 1941. It was located between 8th and 9th Street on 5th Avenue, behind the Pierce building (owned by Lizzie's brother, Richard), and advertised as the first of its kind in the entire nation, if not the world.

During the war years, Walter Lunsford expanded his businesses. He established an amusement company in the building behind the drugstore and restaurant - providing local businesses with pin ball machines and juke boxes. Wishing to sell beer in his wife's restaurant, The Annex, he researched how to go about getting a local distributorship. Since no Black businessman could get a beer distributorship in Columbus, Walter used his connections with Chicago to get the distributorship of Fox Deluxe Beer. He had the only distributorship for Fox Deluxe Beer south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Periodically, he would make trips north to replenish his stock of beer.

Above: The Pierce Building, SW corner of 9th Street and 5th Avenue

Below: (L) Walter Lunsford's Checkered Cab and (R) Ladies gathered at the Lunsford Dining Room table at their home on Lawyers Lane

Walter had two framed messages that were always displayed on his desk – one was the Serenity Prayer, and the other was the Mustard Seed Motto. The Serenity Prayer reads: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". The Mustard Seed Motto says: "If ye have faith the size of a mustard seed... nothing shall be impossible."

Mrs. Huff quietly explained that there were times when Mr. Lunsford had to sacrifice principle for the safety of his family. In 1944, when Primus King challenged the all-White Democratic Primary in Columbus, Walter's mother once again stepped forward. As the case was heard in Macon, she provided the financial assistance and moral support along with Walter, Lula, and other Black leaders, until the ruling of the circuit court brought an end to the all-White Democratic Primary system in Georgia.

The Lunsford family grew and prospered. Ms. Lizzie, with her husband's blessings, built a fine mansion on Lawyers Lane (pictured below), where Black leaders of national prominence were often entertained and offered lodging. During the turbulent 1950's, especially after the death of Dr. Thomas Brewer in 1956, many local Black leaders left town for safer locations. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in the front yard of the Lunsford home.

And yet, the family drew strength from one another and persevered. Mrs. Lizzie Mae Lunsford died in 1966 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Sally, Walter's dedicated wife of over 62 years died in 2002. She too was a well-respected figure in both the White and Black communities. Walter died in December 2006. The Georgia General Assembly recognized his many accomplishments by issuing a resolution in his honor. It was a reflection of how far the State had traveled since the war years, and a tribute as well, to his mother Lizzie and his wife Sally who taught their children and grandchildren the basis of a strong religious faith and high moral principles.

Based on a presentation by Mrs. Lula Lunsford Huff to the Shaw High School Young Historians Club, April 11, 2007.