Everett, second son to William and Frankie Stephenson, was a young man in the Navy reserves with a 1-year-old son when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on his wife's 21st birthday. Suddenly, he was a military man. He had married Wilma Cavin in 1939 in West Memphis, Ark. Michael Ross, the first of their three children, had been born in 1940 with the country still shaking off the Depression.
Once the war was underway, Everett was on duty. He went briefly to Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans and Norfolk, Va., mostly on recruiting duty with family in tow. From there, he was assigned to a landing ship medium, or LSM, and headed off to see combat in the Pacific. The flatbottom ship would come on the beach, drop their huge front ramp and deliver or pick up equipment and/or personnel. Everett later told interesting tales about Japanese fighters attacking his convoy and being right on the beach, seeing Japanese soldiers being driven into the sea by U.S. Marines and watching them drowning in their futile efforts to escape, his son, Michael, wrote in a January 2009 e-mail.
After the war, Everett, who had left high school in about 10th grade, left the service briefly, but he didn't see any good job prospects. As the Army Air Corp was disbanded in favor of the new U.S. Air Force, veterans were recruited and Everett seized the opportunity. His son, Michael, said Everett liked to joke that "When he was so fat he couldn't get the jumper over his belly, he went into the Air Force." Everett hopscotched the country with stops in Memphis, the ROTC in Clemson, S.C., Strategic Air Command in Anchorage, Alaska, and a stint in Rapid City, S.D. In the end, he served, 20 years in the two branches, retiring with the rank Master Sargeant, the highest non commissioned officer rank available at the time. Everett could be gruff, but as he grew older began "ultimately finding and showing love," wrote his grandson, Michael Ross Stephenson II in a January 2009 e-mail.
While leading the nomadic military life, Everett and Wilma had two more children, son Terrance Lee in 1945 and daughter Cheryl Ann in 1946. Upon retirement from the military, Everett, known as Popsie to the grandkids, lived for a time in Memphis and then for many years in Glasgow, Ky. In 1976, he moved to Bradenton, Fla., for health reasons. He died there in 1979 and is buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia.
Obituary
July 29, 1979, Bradenton Herald:
Everett B. Stephenson, 63, of 2908 Baylor Place, Bayshore Gardens, died Thursday in Blake Memorial Hospital.
Private servies will be held for the family. Arrangements are by Brown Funeral Home's 26th Street Chapel.
Born in Crockett County, Tennessee, Mr. Stephenson retired from the U.S. Air Force, came to this area from Memphis, Tenn., in 1976.
He was a Protestant.
Mr. Stephenson was a member of Masonic Lodge 118 F&AM of Memphis.
Survivors include his wife, Wilma; two sons, Michael of Chattanoga (sic), Tenn., and Terrance of Memphis; a daughter, Cheryl Mitchell of Atlanta; his mother, Frankie Stephenson of Memphis; two sisters, Johnnie Whitaker of Memphis and Lottie Smith of Stuttgart, Ark.; and seven grandchildren.
Once the war was underway, Everett was on duty. He went briefly to Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans and Norfolk, Va., mostly on recruiting duty with family in tow. From there, he was assigned to a landing ship medium, or LSM, and headed off to see combat in the Pacific. The flatbottom ship would come on the beach, drop their huge front ramp and deliver or pick up equipment and/or personnel. Everett later told interesting tales about Japanese fighters attacking his convoy and being right on the beach, seeing Japanese soldiers being driven into the sea by U.S. Marines and watching them drowning in their futile efforts to escape, his son, Michael, wrote in a January 2009 e-mail.
After the war, Everett, who had left high school in about 10th grade, left the service briefly, but he didn't see any good job prospects. As the Army Air Corp was disbanded in favor of the new U.S. Air Force, veterans were recruited and Everett seized the opportunity. His son, Michael, said Everett liked to joke that "When he was so fat he couldn't get the jumper over his belly, he went into the Air Force." Everett hopscotched the country with stops in Memphis, the ROTC in Clemson, S.C., Strategic Air Command in Anchorage, Alaska, and a stint in Rapid City, S.D. In the end, he served, 20 years in the two branches, retiring with the rank Master Sargeant, the highest non commissioned officer rank available at the time. Everett could be gruff, but as he grew older began "ultimately finding and showing love," wrote his grandson, Michael Ross Stephenson II in a January 2009 e-mail.
While leading the nomadic military life, Everett and Wilma had two more children, son Terrance Lee in 1945 and daughter Cheryl Ann in 1946. Upon retirement from the military, Everett, known as Popsie to the grandkids, lived for a time in Memphis and then for many years in Glasgow, Ky. In 1976, he moved to Bradenton, Fla., for health reasons. He died there in 1979 and is buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia.
Obituary
July 29, 1979, Bradenton Herald:
Everett B. Stephenson, 63, of 2908 Baylor Place, Bayshore Gardens, died Thursday in Blake Memorial Hospital.
Private servies will be held for the family. Arrangements are by Brown Funeral Home's 26th Street Chapel.
Born in Crockett County, Tennessee, Mr. Stephenson retired from the U.S. Air Force, came to this area from Memphis, Tenn., in 1976.
He was a Protestant.
Mr. Stephenson was a member of Masonic Lodge 118 F&AM of Memphis.
Survivors include his wife, Wilma; two sons, Michael of Chattanoga (sic), Tenn., and Terrance of Memphis; a daughter, Cheryl Mitchell of Atlanta; his mother, Frankie Stephenson of Memphis; two sisters, Johnnie Whitaker of Memphis and Lottie Smith of Stuttgart, Ark.; and seven grandchildren.
Everett, second son to William and Frankie Stephenson, was a young man in the Navy reserves with a 1-year-old son when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on his wife's 21st birthday. Suddenly, he was a military man. He had married Wilma Cavin in 1939 in West Memphis, Ark. Michael Ross, the first of their three children, had been born in 1940 with the country still shaking off the Depression.
Once the war was underway, Everett was on duty. He went briefly to Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans and Norfolk, Va., mostly on recruiting duty with family in tow. From there, he was assigned to a landing ship medium, or LSM, and headed off to see combat in the Pacific. The flatbottom ship would come on the beach, drop their huge front ramp and deliver or pick up equipment and/or personnel. Everett later told interesting tales about Japanese fighters attacking his convoy and being right on the beach, seeing Japanese soldiers being driven into the sea by U.S. Marines and watching them drowning in their futile efforts to escape, his son, Michael, wrote in a January 2009 e-mail.
After the war, Everett, who had left high school in about 10th grade, left the service briefly, but he didn't see any good job prospects. As the Army Air Corp was disbanded in favor of the new U.S. Air Force, veterans were recruited and Everett seized the opportunity. His son, Michael, said Everett liked to joke that "When he was so fat he couldn't get the jumper over his belly, he went into the Air Force." Everett hopscotched the country with stops in Memphis, the ROTC in Clemson, S.C., Strategic Air Command in Anchorage, Alaska, and a stint in Rapid City, S.D. In the end, he served, 20 years in the two branches, retiring with the rank Master Sargeant, the highest non commissioned officer rank available at the time. Everett could be gruff, but as he grew older began "ultimately finding and showing love," wrote his grandson, Michael Ross Stephenson II in a January 2009 e-mail.
While leading the nomadic military life, Everett and Wilma had two more children, son Terrance Lee in 1945 and daughter Cheryl Ann in 1946. Upon retirement from the military, Everett, known as Popsie to the grandkids, lived for a time in Memphis and then for many years in Glasgow, Ky. In 1976, he moved to Bradenton, Fla., for health reasons. He died there in 1979 and is buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia.
Obituary
July 29, 1979, Bradenton Herald:
Everett B. Stephenson, 63, of 2908 Baylor Place, Bayshore Gardens, died Thursday in Blake Memorial Hospital.
Private servies will be held for the family. Arrangements are by Brown Funeral Home's 26th Street Chapel.
Born in Crockett County, Tennessee, Mr. Stephenson retired from the U.S. Air Force, came to this area from Memphis, Tenn., in 1976.
He was a Protestant.
Mr. Stephenson was a member of Masonic Lodge 118 F&AM of Memphis.
Survivors include his wife, Wilma; two sons, Michael of Chattanoga (sic), Tenn., and Terrance of Memphis; a daughter, Cheryl Mitchell of Atlanta; his mother, Frankie Stephenson of Memphis; two sisters, Johnnie Whitaker of Memphis and Lottie Smith of Stuttgart, Ark.; and seven grandchildren.
Once the war was underway, Everett was on duty. He went briefly to Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans and Norfolk, Va., mostly on recruiting duty with family in tow. From there, he was assigned to a landing ship medium, or LSM, and headed off to see combat in the Pacific. The flatbottom ship would come on the beach, drop their huge front ramp and deliver or pick up equipment and/or personnel. Everett later told interesting tales about Japanese fighters attacking his convoy and being right on the beach, seeing Japanese soldiers being driven into the sea by U.S. Marines and watching them drowning in their futile efforts to escape, his son, Michael, wrote in a January 2009 e-mail.
After the war, Everett, who had left high school in about 10th grade, left the service briefly, but he didn't see any good job prospects. As the Army Air Corp was disbanded in favor of the new U.S. Air Force, veterans were recruited and Everett seized the opportunity. His son, Michael, said Everett liked to joke that "When he was so fat he couldn't get the jumper over his belly, he went into the Air Force." Everett hopscotched the country with stops in Memphis, the ROTC in Clemson, S.C., Strategic Air Command in Anchorage, Alaska, and a stint in Rapid City, S.D. In the end, he served, 20 years in the two branches, retiring with the rank Master Sargeant, the highest non commissioned officer rank available at the time. Everett could be gruff, but as he grew older began "ultimately finding and showing love," wrote his grandson, Michael Ross Stephenson II in a January 2009 e-mail.
While leading the nomadic military life, Everett and Wilma had two more children, son Terrance Lee in 1945 and daughter Cheryl Ann in 1946. Upon retirement from the military, Everett, known as Popsie to the grandkids, lived for a time in Memphis and then for many years in Glasgow, Ky. In 1976, he moved to Bradenton, Fla., for health reasons. He died there in 1979 and is buried at Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia.
Obituary
July 29, 1979, Bradenton Herald:
Everett B. Stephenson, 63, of 2908 Baylor Place, Bayshore Gardens, died Thursday in Blake Memorial Hospital.
Private servies will be held for the family. Arrangements are by Brown Funeral Home's 26th Street Chapel.
Born in Crockett County, Tennessee, Mr. Stephenson retired from the U.S. Air Force, came to this area from Memphis, Tenn., in 1976.
He was a Protestant.
Mr. Stephenson was a member of Masonic Lodge 118 F&AM of Memphis.
Survivors include his wife, Wilma; two sons, Michael of Chattanoga (sic), Tenn., and Terrance of Memphis; a daughter, Cheryl Mitchell of Atlanta; his mother, Frankie Stephenson of Memphis; two sisters, Johnnie Whitaker of Memphis and Lottie Smith of Stuttgart, Ark.; and seven grandchildren.
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