Update: A follow-up on long-lost friends... (Aug. 20, 2011)

The Aug. 13 issue of Brazos Past, introduced the quest of Eugene Swope of Louisville, Ky., who asked our readers’ help in making contact with the Johnson family that befriended him and his young bride 60 years ago, when he served at Connally Air Force Base.

Not only did we hear from former Waco Technical High School classmates of Shirley and Juanita Johnson (now Shirley Moore of Attica, Ind., and Nita Motogawa of Effingham, Ill.), but we also had word from Naida Yarborough of Orchard Lane, who recalled the myriad kindnesses shown her by the late Lucille Tuggle Johnson Olson (1914-1986).

Yarborough, 87, said she’d been in Christmas card contact with the daughters for more than 50 years, and was able to provide current addresses.

Then, Tuesday, Brazos Past was contacted by Gilbert Leroy “Bud” Johnson of Belton, 76, the oldest child of Lucille and Gilbert Lorenzo Johnson (1904-1979). He reported that his parents divorced in 1960, and his mother re-married quite happily some years later, wedding a man named Charles Olson of Waco. Lucille Olson lived in the same home at Holman and New Road for 34 years, he said. Bud Johnson said he was alerted to the Tribune-Herald story by his pastor, the Rev. Pat Dietrich of Hewitt, who is senior pastor of First Lutheran Church of Temple.

Meanwhile, Eugene and Elaine Swope are now armed with contact information to begin their long-delayed reunion with old friends.

Sixty years ago, Eugene Swope was 20 years old with a 15-year-old bride, Elaine, when he was stationed at James Connally Air Force Base.

Eugene Swope and his wife, Patricia, met 60 years ago, when Eugene was stationed at Connally Air Force Base.

Gilbert and Lucille Johnson of Waco, circa 1951, befriended the Swopes.
Photo courtesy of Eugene Swope

The base, located about seven miles northeast of downtown Waco, began as a basic pilot-training school during World War II, when it was known as Waco Army Air Field from spring 1942 until early 1945.

The facility was re-activated in 1948 as a basic pilot-training school, and then grew in June 1949 into Connally Air Force Base, named in memory of a local pilot killed in a mission over Japan in 1945.

At the time, Eugene Swope said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Louisville, Ky, he was a young sergeant far from home.

But he was making a humble start in life with his wife in a trailer court in Waco, where they spent a year before he was shipped to Korea as a reconnaissance photographer.

While they were stationed in Waco, the Swopes developed a close friendship with a local family, the Johnsons, who lived next door to them.

The family included the husband, Gilbert; his wife, Lucille; and their daughters, 16-year-old Shirley, who was already married, and 15-year-old Juanita.

The two families socialized often. They played cards in each other’s homes; watched the Johnson’s new living room television set (a luxury the struggling Swopes couldn’t afford themselves); or attended the local drag races on weekends.

The families were so close that when an apartment opened up in town for the Air Force couple, the Johnsons soon followed, moving into a nearby unit.

But in early 1952, Eugene Swope was called to go to Korea.

“We left our friends and I forgot to get their addresses,” he said. “Soon we learned that my wife was going to have a baby.

“When I arrived at my new base, I was told that I would be making pictures in Korea and southern parts of Japan. Needless to say, my time was no longer my own.”

Swope left the Air Force in 1955. He and Elaine went on to raise six daughters and a son, and he worked in cigarette manufacturing for many years in his native Kentucky.

But he never forgot the kindness shown him by that Central Texas family long ago.

Now in the twilight of his life, the 80-year-old veteran said he would love to look up the daughters of his hosts for old times’ sake.

Shirley Johnson Pledger would be 76 years old and her sister, Juanita, would be 75 years old now, he said.

Gilbert Johnson (left) joins his daughters, Shirley Johnson Pledger and Juanita Johnson, and his wife, Lucille, in their Waco living room, which boasted a brand new television, circa 1952.
Photo courtesy of Eugene Swope

He has no idea if they stayed in the Greater Waco area or moved back to their parents’ native Illinois after many years.

But Swope is asking the readers of the Tribune-Herald to help him make contact with the Johnson siblings across the decades and many miles.

“They were all very special people,” Elaine Swope said. “They made our time there a wonderful experience.”

Eugene Swope, in fact, calls himself “a loyal, true love” of the city.

“If I could move back there, I would,” he said.

Individuals with any leads for him to pursue can make contact through Brazos Past.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746