Published Sept. 15, 2003
Hendersonville Times-News

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20030915/NEWS/309150319/0/search

By Jennie Jones Giles
Three young men from the Mount Olivet area in Zirconia left Henderson County to fight for their country in World War II.
The late Chester “Chet” Tankersley was wounded in Belgium while serving with the Army. His brother, the late Otho Tankersley, stepped on an anti-personnel mine at Anzio in Italy and lost both legs.
The third son of the late J.W. Tankersley and Addie Capps Tankersley was taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge and spent nine months as a prisoner of war in Germany until its liberation in May of 1945.
Hesterly “Hesley” Tankersley, who was serving with the Army’s 122nd Infantry, returned home sick, weighing 75 pounds, said his niece, Gevi McCraw.
“They didn’t tell us he had tuberculosis,” she said.
He died at the veterans’ hospital in Oteen on Jan. 16, 1946.
Tuxedo veteran Argie Taylor noticed Tankersley’s grave while visiting the cemetery at Mount Olivet Baptist Church. There was no indication Tankersley was a veteran or a POW.
“I kept thinking about it,” Taylor said. “He was a POW. He died. He made such a sacrifice. His grave should be appropriately honored and recognized for the service he gave to his country.”
Taylor and Shuford Edmiston with Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens could not find a death certificate for Tankersley in Henderson or Buncombe counties. They did find his discharge papers registered at the Henderson County Courthouse. Thos. Shepherd and Son Funeral Directors had the record of Tankersley’s funeral, which was held Jan. 18, 1946. Using these documents, they obtained the marker.
A ceremony is planned for 2 p.m. Friday, National POW/MIA Recognition Day, at the grave in Mount Olivet Baptist Church cemetery. The Henderson County Honor Guard will conduct a service of remembrance and a memorial service. All veterans and members of veteran organizations are invited to participate, along with friends, family and former POWs.
“This family suffered one of the worst tragedies of the war,” Taylor said.
Other family members were in the home when Hesterly Tankersley returned from the war carrying tuberculosis.
“His youngest sister, who was 17 or 18, contracted the disease and also my mother, who had six children, got the disease,” said McCraw.
Lillian, Tankersley’s sister, died of tuberculosis at the age of 20.
“In 1947, my mother, Sinia Capps, had to go to the Black Mountain Sanitarium,” McCraw said. “She developed fluid around her heart.”
A doctor from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota came to Western North Carolina in 1948 and performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in the nation in 1948 on McCraw’s mother, said McCraw. She lived 10 more years.
“The war affected so many lives,” said McCraw. “It devastated our whole family.”
She said her mother was pregnant at the time she contracted tuberculosis. McCraw’s youngest brother, Eddie, was born with physical problems and a birth defect.
While Hesterly Tankersley was suffering from tuberculosis, his brother Otho was in a hospital in Georgia recovering from his injuries.
“He was in a Movietone News reel,” McCraw said. “He said he was so glad to return home he could kiss the ground.”
Despite the loss of both legs, Otho Tankersley “was one of the jolliest, happiest human beings I’ve ever met,” Taylor said. “He never felt pity for himself. He was an inspiration.”
Brother Chet Tankersley recovered from his injuries in an Army hospital in Virginia, and returned home, only to contract tuberculosis.
He spent about two years at the veterans’ hospital before recovering
McCraw said when her uncle Hesterly first returned from the POW camp, before being admitted to the veterans’ hospital, he taught her to count to 100 in German.
“I never forgot,” she said. “If I did real well, he had all these chocolate bars in his duffel bag; he’d go up and get one.”
“He said they (the Germans) fed him bread made out of sawdust and cabbage with worms in it,” she said.