DRAPER, Albert Wren

Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ June 14, 1946 ‘Mother’ Draper Lost Son In Both World War I and II To lose her only two sons while serving their country in the armed forces, one in World War I and the other in World War II, is the tragic misfortune of a Wickenburg woman, Mrs Martha Draper, affectionately known by every veteran in this locality as “Mother” Draper. Her oldest son, Howard, died at the age of 21, fighting in the battle of St. Mihiel in the First World War. The youngest, Albert Wren Draper, passed away on Thursday of last week in a veteran’s hospital in Livermore, Calif., of illness contracted while serving with the engineer’s corp in the last war. The death of Albert last week came as a crushing blow to his 80-year-old mother as well as to his wife, sister and friends here. He entered the hospital several months ago for treatment but his condition had steadily grown worse. His mother visited him at Livermore a few weeks ago. Born in Gloster, Miss., on October 24, 1906, Albert was brought to Arizona when 13 months old, and grew up in and around Wickenburg, attending high school two years here. He took an electrical course in Los Angeles and was working in the mines at Grass valley, Calif., when he entered the service more than three years ago. While stationed near Salt Lake City, he met Thelma Wycoff at a recreational center and they were married February 14, 1943. They became the parents of a son, Howard, now aged two and one=half and named for his uncle who died in France in 1918, and a 11-month-old daughter, Gloria Ann. Besides the widow, children and mother, Albert is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Ruth Vannish of Wickenburg. The body was taken to Prescott where funeral services were conducted, with the Prescott post of the American Legion in charge, on Tuesday of this past week. The burial was in Mountain View cemetery, beside his brother whose body was brought back from France and interred in the Prescott cemetery exactly 25 years ago Tuesday, to the day and hour. The father of the two boys Albert Draper passed away February 22, 1939. When the American Legion post was organized here following World War I, it ws named for Howard Draper and Bernard Kellis, the two Wickenburg boys who lost their lives in that conflict.