Alva POW Camp Artist
"Dear Folks, I'm not sure who will read this, but here goes. My name is Diana Glasgow and all my great-grandparents pioneered in Woods County.
I happen to be teaching this year at Novosibirsk State University, in Novosibirsk,
Russia. Being homesick (and it's been a long winter here in Siberia) I sometimes sit and surf the internet. Today I typed in 'Dacoma, Oklahoma' and came up with your website and information about the POW Camp south of Alva.
I was interested because I lived in Legion Heights, a veterans housing addition south of Alva, as a little girl (after WWII) and played
with the sight of the old guard tower always in view.
A few years ago I was coming home to visit my mother (Dana Glasgow, daughter of Earl and Gladys, granddaughter of Orville and Matie Belle Glasgow) in Arkansas City, Kansas and was picked up at the Wichita Airport by Lawrence Kinney.
My own father was actually Clenard McArthur Tate of Capron and Alva, but he was killed in combat in WWII just a month before I was born. I have many of his letters home and have visited his battlefield sites with a group of his 'brothers-in-arms' from the 99th Infantry Division.
I had just come back from this European trip and was talking to Lawrence Kinney about it on the drive home. I had known Lawrence since childhood as he was the Allis Chalmers blockman for Alva.
Anyway, Lawrence started telling me about his own experiences in WWII. He fought in the same area
as my dad (the Belgian Ardennes) and was taken prisoner early in the Battle of the Bulge. So he was in a Nazi POW camp until the summer of 1945, when he was sent home to Alva, still on active duty.
He was placed as a guard at the Alva POW camp! And now we're getting down to the solution of the mystery.
Lawrence took me home and showed me his own collection of WWII memorabilia, including letters home and ... you guessed it, paintings done by a German POW at the Alva Camp! Only these paintings had a signature on them, and Lawrence had managed to locate the living man, now living in Germany and a renowned artist and sculptor! I don't believe they ever actually met, but they exchanged letters and phone calls.
Their mutual experiences as POW's had created the possibility for a kind of bond. Lawrence had pulled the paintings from a pile of debris that was about to be burned during the cleanup of the POW camp at Alva after it was closed.
I know for sure that Lawrence's widow, Lois, still has some of the paintings, the German artist's name and address in Germany, etc. I think it would be very interesting to contact him, if he is still alive, as he speaks English and could contribute his own stories to your website and talk to the owners of the house who want to create a beer garden. Oh, wonders of the
internet." -- Diana Glasgow - Email: DianaGlasgow@aol.com
Editor's Note: Diana gave me Lois Kinney's address. If you are truly interested in contacting her concerning the paintings done by German POW at the Alva Camp, please Email me and I will see about forwarding the address to those truly interested. Thanks! -- LK Wagner
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