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Orangeburg Family To Pay Tribute to Viet
Nam Era Fallen
War Hero Father Connected to Secretary
of Defense Robert S. McNamara
with Arlington National Cemetery Reburial with Wife
For Immediate Release
February 20, 2014
Media Contact: Kelly Armstrong,
415 525 0410
Orangeburg, South Carolina-Orangeburg resident, Stanley Wright and wife Viola Barnes Wright are preparing to pay tribute to Wright’s parents by having their remains moved to Arlington National Cemetery for a March 10, 2014 ceremony in Arlington Virginia.
Spearheaded by the oldest child of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. (December 10, 1931-March 9, 1964) and Ouida McLendon Wright (January 10, 1935-March 9, 1970), after a family reunion in Jacksonville, Florida, July 4th weekend in 2012, the siblings Jackie, Joe, Stanley and Phyllis agreed to find out what it would take to move their father from a segregated cemetery to Arlington National Cemetery.
"Our Dad, died in Viet Nam after completing a rigorous year of regular missions with honors, just two weeks before returning home as he served on an additional mission as honor guard for then Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara,” said Stanley Wright, 55, the youngest son of the Wrights. "Over the years, the City of Jacksonville did not up keep the segregated cemeteries in northern Jacksonville as the news reports and articles had indicated they would do. Our war hero father is buried in one of them, Mt. Olive Cemetery.”
The Wrights note that their family story was an indicator McNamara and U.S. leadership ignored. Although he saw the tragedy of war on March 9, 1964 early in the Viet Nam Conflict, McNamara escalated the war during the Johnson administration and went to his death on July 6, 2009 at the age of 93 regretting his actions. His 1995 memoir, "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam and the Oscar-winning documentary film "The Fog of War” expressed those regrets.
When the Wrights started their journey to have their father honored at Arlington, they began to realize that it would be an appropriate honor to pay tribute to their mother as well who is buried in Green Acres Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia that by contrast is a well-kept historic cemetery.
(Ouida Fay McLendon Miss Frederick Douglas 1952. The photo that won Wyley's Heart).
"There was a great bound of love between our parents, a match made in heaven. We have often thought about whether we would be here today, if it had not been for media, said Stanley Wright. By the happenstance of one of my father’s fellow soldiers returning from the Korean War, dropping a photo of our mom, then Miss Frederick Douglass and my father picking it up, as a result we are here today. With love at first sight he said to himself, "this is my wife,” so we four siblings stand as their offspring and now they have great grandchildren although they were in their early thirties when they died, six years apart,” added Wright.
"This memorial at Arlington comes as a significant time for us as we celebrate life and we honor our parents,” said Wright. "Our daughter is alive and recuperating now from a senseless deadly accident caused by a drunk driver last November,” said Wright. "We give thanks to God that Alliyah, who is just starting out in life survived and will be able to honor her grandparents with us. We honor them and reflect with sadness on the passing of our daughter’s friend Anise Portis at the tender age of 19. The honoring of the dead is something that should never be forgotten. It helps us respect and treasure life,” added Wright.
The Cedar Hills subdivision in Columbus, Georgia bordering Fort Benning, GA, is where Stanley Wright and his siblings grew up at 1103 Bedford Avenue, a home built for them by their mother Ouida Fay McLendon Wright from proceeds from their father’s Metropolitan Life Insurance policy. The home at the corner of Bedford and Dawn Court, a distinctive structure built of Tennessee stone by one of few Black constructors at the time, Ed Stovall, is now a facility for the elderly, owned by Katie and Robert Morris, cousins of the Wrights, who live across the street. Most identify the former Wright home with a similar structure that was built after it, M.L. Harris United Methodist Church, at the corner of Bedford and Cusseta Road that is also made of Tennessee stone.
The Wrights say that it all seems to be coming in full circle. Ouida Wright, often spoke of their home as being for extended family and friends in need and now it is serving as such after the Morris’ bought the home to keep it in the family after foreclosure from a predatory loan. Now the youngest daughter, Phyllis Wright Cameron, now 50, who was six months old when her father (who never got to hold her and only saw her picture) and six years old when her mother died, is just weeks away from opening a home for seniors in Pittsburg, CA near her home of Antioch.
"I am really proud of my
cousin Fay’s children for doing their best to make it through life without benefit
of their parents,” said Katie Morris, a real estate agent, who was a nurse at
the time on the floor of Martin Army Hospital where Ouida Fay Wright died. "From Jackie working her way through the
University of Georgia raising her teenage sister and her daughter, Tiffanie who
was in elementary school at the time, to Joe serving in the U.S. Army, to
Stanley now owning his own "Done Wright” trucking company in South Carolina and
now Phyllis following our family tradition of service to others, I believe they
have proven to be salt of the earth people doing the best they can do with the
circumstances they have faced,” added Morris.
Family members will be gathering from around the country in Arlington for the reburials. Stanley Wright, with wife of 29 years, Viola Barnes, the daughter of SFC Romie L. Barnes and Margaret Guest Barnes, a military family also, with their three children, Stanley D’relle 28, Devon Chase 26 and Alliyah, 19 from Orangeburg, South Carolina; Phyllis Wright Cameron, with Woodrow Cameron, her husband of 26 years and their 8 year old daughter from Antioch, CA near San Francisco, Jackie Wright of San Francisco, with daughter Tiffanie Chiles-Mitchell and her husband of 14 years, Carlos Mitchell with their three children, 9, 8, and 4 years old coming from Dallas and from Columbus, Joe and Brenda, who will be gathering their three children from Atlanta and Oakland, CA with their grandchildren 14 and 6 years old coming from Atlanta and Miami. Members of the extended family and friends who can attend have been invited to the memorial celebration titled… "A Tribute to Sp5 Wyley Wright and Ouida F. Wright, Love Separated in Life… Love Joined in Honor.”
"This has been an unexpected honor for us to manifest the Judeo-Christian principle "honor thy father and thy mother” in this way, said Jackie Wright of San Francisco, 60. "The Internet led me to soldiers who had served in my father’s military unit the 114th (One-Fourteenth) Aviation Airmobile Company, where he served as crew chief, who knew of him because the base in Vinh Long, Vietnam was named in honor of him and a Lieutenant. Many soldiers had served there. I found out about the Shannon-Wright Compound also named in part in honor of Lieutenant Kenneth A. Shannon who died within days of our father. I found out the Cobra Helicopter was a result of my father naming their unit helicopters’ "The Cobras.” When we found out the cemetery where he was, was no longer honorable and segregated, as a family we decided to move him to Arlington to be near where his name is inscribed in "The Wall,” added Jackie. "Our Dad had served 15 years in the U.S. Army, was five years away from retiring when he died. He did not give a segregated service to this country. He gave all. He gave his life!”
When thinking about following up on death certificates, excavation companies and funeral homes, the Wrights are not taking this as a sad occasion but an uplifting one in the face of their loss. The memorials and memories are a significant part of life as birthday and other celebrations, according to the Wrights. They consider the faithfulness of God that they as the children of Wyley and Ouida Wright have lived longer on earth than their parents and that even some of their parents’ grandchildren have outlived their time on earth.
The Wright Family also extends heartfelt condolences to the Shea Family as they remember the loss fifty years ago of PFC John Francis Shea, a Roman Catholic from Willimantic, Connecticut, who was twenty days shy of his 21st birthday when he too died serving as a door gunner in the helicopter crash that claimed Sp5 Wyley Wright’s life. Helicopter/Incident 62-01961 is recorded in the Gold Book (http://560mp.tripod.com/560MP/Shea.htm).
The Wrights thank the soldiers of the 114th Aviation Company, Taylor Funeral Home of Phenix City, Alabama, Greene Funeral Home of Alexandria, Virginia, Carthage Funeral Home of Jacksonville, Sconiers Funeral Home of Columbus, Georgia, Wilbert Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, Green Acres Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia, and Mount Olive Cemetery of Jacksonville, Florida for their help. The office of Commanding General H.R. McMaster of Fort Benning, GA was of great assistance in providing information along with Arlington National Cemetery.
The services will be at 3:00 p.m., March 10, 2014 at Arlington National Cemetery. A reception will follow at a location to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, those wishing to express sentiments of commemoration and congratulations to the family can do so by contributing to the "Wright Place” Senior Facility that is being launched in Pittsburg, CA by Wright sibling Phyllis Cameron and her husband, Woodrow Cameron. Via PayPal on the Internet, email Phyllis.thewrightplace@gmail.com or mail contributions payable to The Wright Place for Seniors to P.O. Box 1022, Antioch, CA 94509.
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For other background on the family’s journey of honor, see the following links:
Media Advisory-Sp5 Wyley and
Ouida Wright Re-interment
Asian Week Article 2010 on
San Francisco Reunion
http://www.asianweek.com/2010/06/28/family-reunion-honors-the-legacy-of-a-dad-and-vietnam-war-hero/
News Release 2010 on San
Francisco Reunion
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=67401&columnid
Gold Book Describing Death of
Sp5 Wright and PFC Shea on March 9, 1964
http://560mp.tripod.com/560MP/Shea.htm
Battalion History of 114th-
"Knights of the Air”(First Army Aviation Unit in Viet Nam) Outlining the
difficulty of missions: http://www.145thcab.com/History/NL29HIST.htm