Hide Article Text (OCR)
By SHIRLEY DONNELLY Following columns here on the loss of the children of Mr. and Mrs. George Sodder in connection with the fire that destroyed their home the night before Christmas years ago, my old friend called me to talk about the matter. Soon as it can be arranged a trip is going to be made to see Mr. and Mrs. Sodder to hear their story in full. In my article, based on stor ies in the news papers, it was Stated that there were ash es found in the ruins of the fire and that these were the ashes of Horse... man bones. Sodder says this is en tirely wrong. This column is glad to correct any statement if and when it is in error. One source of information on the subject of the bones is to the effect that they were apparently human bones but there was ab solutely no conclusive evidence they were the bones of the ill fated children of the Sadder cou ple. I gathered from our con versation over the telephone that it is suspected by some that such bones might have been placed in the ruins caused by the confla gration that Christmas Eve night of 1945. Since there were no ash remains from the burning of bones found in the fire, the Sodders believe that those children may have been kidnapped or carried away. But where? By whom? There's the mystery. it IS INCONCEIVABLE to me that a fire so more extensive than the small Sodder home could have made could completely destroy all parts of the bodies and bones of so many children as perished in it. Periodically this subject comes up. Some years ago it was dwelt upon at length by a Writer in a Charleston paperr as I recall it. Did the press of the area and state give fair and impartial re ports on the disaster? Did the county and state authorities look carefully into the matter to deter mine if a crime had been com mitted? That was the year I returned from the war and as the matter is remembered there was general sympathy for the distraught par ents. If those children were car ried away alive, as the belief of some persists, some fiend or fiends were the perpetrators of an outrageous crime. Death could have removed such evil actors from earth in the 17 years since the tragedy. What would be the frame of mind of such char acters? ONE OF THESE DAYS some one is likely to write a novel, a historic novel, in part, on this tragedy. In it the writer would outline in fill the theory, belief, and feeling of the bereaved couple. If alive, what would the chil dren, all now grown, be doing? Where would they be? With so many elements of doubt and mystery, maybe an in crease in the reward offered for a solution of it would step up action. If this would solve it, I, for one, would like to contrib ute to such reward. As one whose children are dead, the desolation of facing old -age childless is not unknown. Time does little to efface the marks of grief made on the heart of one who has been heavily bereaved. WHILE WE WERE TALKING the other evening, George Ladder told me he was of Italian descent and that he was born on the island of Sardinia. Our conversation served to recall that August night in 1945 when the convoy in which I sailed en route to the invasion of Southern France passed through the strait between Sardinia and Corsica—home of Napoleon, you know. Sodder is a miner today, work ing a “punch mine,” he said, in which the coal is some 30 inches high. I think he told me Mrs. Sod der came from Foggia in Italy, a place where I visited a number of times while stationed in Italy. There is quite a colony of Itat ions at Fayetteville, or at least there used to be a Jot of them. Some of them were stone masons but these are mostly gone now. IF THE STORIES of the dis appearance of those Sodder chil dren, stories such as I have writ ten here on another occasion or two, would result in the forma tion of an organization to pursue the tragedy to a solution to the complete satisfaction of the par ents in particular and the doubt ing members of the public, it would be gratifying indeed.
Newspaper Details
Post Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Mon, Jan 28, 1963
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Danielle B.
