Grover Benjamin Bannister

Private, U.S. Army Coastal Artillery Corps, Company 1

Born Oct. 8, 1888 - Died Oct. 6, 1918

Grover Benjamin Bannister was the son of Judge Charles A. Bannister and Josephine Wilma (Hanks) Bannister.

He was born Oct. 8, 1888, in Pratt County, Kan., and he and his family moved to Oklahoma in 1889, first settling on a farm east of El Reno. In 1895, the family built a new home at 200 N. Barker Ave., where they lived for decades thereafter.

William Roberts “Billy” Laird

1940 graduate of El Reno High School.

Born March 16, 1921 - Died Feb. 7, 1943

Laird enlisted in the U.S. Navy on May 18, 1942, just about six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

SM3c Laird was one of two signalmen assigned to the troop transport ship the Henry R. Mallory.

The ship was sunk on Feb. 7, 1943, by a German U-boat submarine in the North Atlantic Ocean, en route to Reykjavik, Iceland, from New York after making a stop at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

A total of 272 individuals died in the attack.

Harry Eugene Bradly

Born Dec. 13, 1922 - Died Jan. 25, 1943

Died in a crash of an AT-6 Texan trainer aircraft along the coast of Texas.

Bradly only attended El Reno schools through the seventh grade, at which point his family moved to Chicago, Ill., his father working for the Rock Island Railroad and being transferred there from El Reno.

Bradly graduated from Calumet High School in Chicago in 1941.

The Tribune would like to thank Brian Rukes, El Reno High School English teacher and District Historian, for his contributions to this special section honoring our veterans.

Also, to all those who contributed information about the men and women they love who served this nation.