Billy Evans, boatswain's mate second class and gun captain

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20037370

Description

This is a portrait of Billy Evans, boatswain's mate second class and gun captain on a heavy cruiser wearing. He is visiting his mother, Mrs. Edna Evans and three sisters, Pat Harrison, Walter McCoy, and Tom Jones, all of Fort Worth, after 19 months' service in the North and South Pacific. On his left ear Evans wears a small gold earring with a tiny anchor suspended in the middle. Nine months ago, after a naval battle, some of the sailors started wearing the earrings in lieu of a ribbon which they thought should have been awarded them, Evans said. Soon almost the entire enlisted personnel, about 1,000 men, adopted the custom, buying the earrings in Honolulu and piercing their own or each other's ears with sail needles about the size of a wooden match. Evans said some had perfectly plain gold rings, while others chose diamond studded ornaments. He intends to wear the earring at least until after the war. Evans participated in four major battles. A graduate of Paschal High School in 1939, he enlisted two and a half year ago. Published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram morning edition, June 9, 1944.

Archival Date

1944-06-08

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-602

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

Rights held by The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections. Any use of content downloaded or printed from this page is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact UTA Special Collections by emailing spcoref@uta.edu.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

United States. Navy; Military uniforms; Evans, Billy (BM2); Earrings; Evans, Edna (Mrs.); Harrison, Pat; McCoy, Walter; Jones, Tom; Paschal High schools