Georgia Perimeter College on Wednesday is hosting an oral history on World War II told by local residents who served and whose loved ones fought.
The panel, moderated by The News' general manager, Pat Cavanaugh, includes combat veterans and residents whose family members served, and in many cases died, and will be held at 2:30 p.m. in the auditorium of GPC's Newton Campus on Cedar Lane east of Covington off U.S. Highway 278.
Panel members include the following:
• Ambassador Theodore Britton. Britton served in the Marines on Guadalcanal, initially relegated to "support" roles with his fellow African-Americans, but later was stationed in Hawaii in anticipation of an invasion of Japan. In 1974, President Gerald Ford nominated Britton as ambassador to Barbados and Grenada, where he served until 1977.
• Grady and Grace Spradley. Grady Spradley is a veteran of the European campaign, and Grace Spradley, who lived in Oxford and Covington at the time, had two brothers fight in the war.
• Fred Wiley. Wiley is veteran of the Army Infantry 29th Division and took part in the Normandy invasion.
• Johnie Tuck. Tuck's husband served in the Army and returned home safely after the war.
• James Jones. Jones, who lived in Atlanta during the 1940s, lost an uncle in the war, but kept the telegram the family received notifying them of the death.
Georgia Perimeter is hosting a five-day World War II symposium, much of it on its Clarkston campus, starting on Nov. 7 and culminating in a Veterans' Day "ticketed USO-style Big Band dance in the GPC Clarkston gymnasium" on Nov. 11, according to Rebecca Rakoczy, a spokeswoman for Georgia Perimeter.
