On This Day – Tom Johnston Jr (1912-1973)
My grandfather, Tom J. Johnston Jr was born one hundred years ago on 7 October 1912 in Gustine, a town in Comanche County, Texas. [1] His parents were Thomas Newton Johnston and Nell L. Hutson. He was the third child of five, having two older sisters, Beryl and Mildred, and two younger brothers, Hal and Luther. His mother, Nell died 14 Jul 1919 at the young age of 31. Tom was only six and half years old and his youngest brother, Luther, was only eighteen months old. It must have been very hard on his father to raise five children without a mother. He married my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster, on 15 December 1933 by the Justice of the Peace in Gustine, Comanche County, Texas. [2] They had one child, Lela Nell Johnston. He served a short time in the United States Navy, leaving after four months with a medical discharge due to an ulcer. [3] The family was living in Idaho at the US Naval Training Center, Farragut, Idaho. T...