As I usually do I did a search of all records for O. Farris Happy in Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, it did not turn up much. I then narrowed the search to Military records. Low and behold I found a record for an Oliver F. Happy listed as a prisoner of war during WWII. News to me! I immediately tapped in to Fold3.com to see if I could track down more information.
I had not heard of air crews being interred in Switzerland, a neutral country during the war. A little research brought me to the website for the Swiss Internees Association, a group dedicated to the memory of Army Air Force veterans interred in Switzerland. Their website lists the flight of Oliver Happy:
Coincidentally, though Oliver Happy was born in Missouri it appears that he died in Montezuma County, Colorado. The very area that my husband's line is from. Odd coincidence, that. My next step is to contact the Swiss Internees Association to see if they have any more information on Oliver or his flight crew.
3 comments:
What an interesting story. I'm glad you walked us through your steps to get to the facts.
I'm the daughter of Oliver Farris Happy and the information on his place of death is an error. I wrote a letter shortly after discovering this to the Social Security Administration . . . and heard nothing back from them. I'm wondering if this might be the town from which his military benefits might have been mailed.
Don't know where you live, but we have his scrapbook from his years in Switzerland. My brother, Donald Happy, was stationed in Germany in the 60's. He and his wife took a vacation to Switzerland to see if any of the people who knew him were still living.
Daphne Happy
Liberty, Mo
Daphne, I'm late in responding but I'm always interested to learn more. How interesting that they erred by so much in his place of death. My family still live in Ray County...perhaps we can link up some day. Shoot me a message through the blog!
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