WW2 Marine's diary: A brief look at a brief life

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130527/DA6HHLT02.html

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Before Cpl. Thomas "Cotton" Jones was killed by a Japanese sniper in the South Pacific in 1944, he wrote what he called his "last life request" to anyone who might find his diary: Please give it to Laura Mae Davis, the girl he loved.

Davis did get to read the diary - but not until nearly 70 years later, when she saw it in a display case at the National World War II Museum.


In this May 23, 2013 photo, a page of out of the diary of 22-year-old Marine Cpl. Thomas Jones featuring a photo of his high school sweetheart, Laura Mae Davis Burlingame, is on display at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Behind is a Marine uniform like one Jones, who died in the bloody assault on a Japanese-held island during World War II, would have worn. Before Jones died, he wrote what he called his “last life request” to anyone who might find his diary: Please give it to Laura Mae Davis, the girl he loved. Laura Mae Davis Burlingame _ she married an Army Air Corps man in 1945 _ had given the diary to Jones, and didn’t know it had survived him until visiting the museum on April 24. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)


"I didn't have any idea there was a diary in there," said the 90-year-old Mooresville, Ind., woman. She said it brought tears to her eyes.

Laura Mae Davis Burlingame - she married an Army Air Corps man in 1945 - had gone to the New Orleans museum on April 24 looking for a display commemorating the young Marine who had been her high-school sweetheart.

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