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Topic: Clayton "Donny" Morningstar, The Royal Canadian Regiment, Korea. (Read 245 times)
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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The Long Goodbye
Veteran died in action 54 years ago. For his family, the wound is still fresh
Posted By JOHN ROBBINS
His name was Clayton, but friends and family called him Donny.
And like the other Morningstar boys from Crysler Avenue, he was well built but not overly tall. A quiet young man, with a square jaw and a handsome smile, Donny always seemed mature for his age.
Even more so when he came home on his first leave from the army wearing the crisp new uniform of a private of the 3rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment.
The whole family was proud, if somewhat apprehensive about what lay in store for him and the other young men of his outfit.
When he shipped out to Korea, his mother, Mildred, would pen long letters filled with all sorts of ordinary details about life back home in Niagara Falls.
One can only imagine Donny sitting on the edge of his bunk all those thousands of miles away, his eyes hungrily scanning the precious lines of Mildred's elegant, cursive script.
Mildred was glad to get Donny's letters, too, since it was proof that her first-born son had survived yet another week in the Land of the Morning Calm.
She could never know for certain, though, because of the time it took for mail to reach the front-line troops.
In fact, what turned out to be Mildred's last letter was slowly making its way across the vast width of the Pacific Ocean just about the time when Donny's outfit was mauled by a strong force of Chinese infantry.
By the time Mildred's letter made it to the front, the critically wounded 22-year-old had been shipped out to a mobile army surgical hospital behind the lines.
Donny died of his wounds a few days later on Mother's Day, May 10, 1953, just three days shy of his 23rd birthday.
Unopened, the letter was sent home to Mildred, the word "deceased" scrawled across the top of the envelope.
The dreaded telegram made it to the Morningstar home first.
CATHERINE SYNES, Donny's sister, remembers the day when the news of her brother's death was hand delivered by a young woman she knew from the post office.
Donny's mom and dad were out at the time, so the sealed message was passed back and forth between the siblings until 16-year-old Catherine agreed to be the one to open it.
"I wasn't quite sure I wanted to read it," Catherine says while looking over some old photos with sister Nancy Morningstar, who was just 11 when their brother died.
"I did open it, and that's when I went blank."
Harder than finding out her brother had died was watching her parents' reaction when they arrived home a little while later.
Mildred collapsed when she was told of her son's death, then fainted again when she tried to carry the news across the street to Donny's grandmother.
Donny Morningstar was among the last Canadian soldiers to die during the Korean war, which ended in an uneasy armistice a little over two months later.
Canadian military tradition of the time dictated that the country's war dead were to be buried in the land where they fell.
Donny was laid to rest in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan (formerly Pusan), South Korea.
In time, the names of the 516 members of the Canadian Army Special Force killed fighting to preserve the fledgling South Korean democracy would be memorialized on cenotaphs dotting the Canadian landscape from the Maritimes to the Rockies.
The family put up its own marker at Fairview Cemetery in Niagara Falls, even though they didn't have a body to bury there in the family plot.
The gravesite was cold comfort for Mildred, though. For no matter how many times she saw Donny's name etched in stone she never accepted the horrible reality of his loss.
Never.
"We never had any closure with Donny," said Nancy, who still lives in the family home where she and her seven brothers and two sisters grew up together.
Catherine believes things would have been different for her mother and the rest of the family had Donny's body been shipped home to Canada, just like the remains of soldiers killed in Afghanistan today are repatriated.
"There were so many questions that were never answered for her," Catherine said, as she sorted through the yellowing pages of Mildred's last letter to Donny.
"To her, he wasn't dead yet."
THE MORNINGSTAR KIDS of Crysler Avenue grew up and grew old, yet never forgot the cherished memories of their brother - not even after they laid their mom and dad to rest.
One day not that long ago, they received a surprise visit from a woman who knew them and Donny from the old neighbourhood.
Delores Thompson, whose husband is also a Korean War veteran, had come looking for a photograph of Donny to send over to Korea as part of an effort to place pictures of the soldiers on their gravestones at the cemetery in Busan.
While talking with the surviving siblings, Thompson learned of the difficulty the family had accepting Donny's death at the time and how it remained an unhealed wound all these years later.
Those conversations gave Thompson an idea.
With the help of local members of the Korea Veterans Association of Canada, Thompson organized a special memorial service for the family.
The quiet, dignified ceremony took place Sept. 16 this year at Fairview cemetery.
Gathered around the graves of their father and mother, the children and their families finally got the chance to say goodbye to Donny in a way they didn't get to 54 years ago.
"This was their funeral," Thompson said after the service.
"This is what they needed."
The experience was a powerful one for Ron Delegard, president of Korea Veterans Association of Canada unit 15.
"I never saw a family so emotional after so many years," he said.
Delegard, who has visited the cemetery in Busan, said it can be hard for family members to come to grips with the loss of a loved one when the burial place is far from home.
Catherine and Nancy have nothing but praise for Thompson and the vets who made the ceremony possible.
While Catherine believes it was important to have the memorial service for them and for Donny, she had someone else in mind that day.
"This was for mom."
jrobbins@nfreview.com
Remembrance Day services in Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, Sunday:
- 10:30 a.m. - Niagara Falls Memorial Arena;
- 11 a.m. - Ridgeway Memorial Cemetery, at the corner of Gorham Road and Farr Avenue (hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion, branch 230);
- 1:30 p.m. - Stevensville Memorial Hall (hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion, branch 230);
- 1:30 p.m. - Parade march beginning at the Zellers plaza parking lot on Garrison Road and ending at the Mather Arch cenotaph for a 2 p.m. service (hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion, branch 71).
Article ID# 770848
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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T Sheady
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I'm wondering if anyone can tell me who a Charlie Morningstar may have been?
My father, Pte Wm Sheady, was in the 3rd RCR in Korea. He passed away in 1993, and among his things was a letter/song written by Allen Vern Morningstar to his son Charlie and "the other boys fighting in Korea". It was written Oct 25, 1952, and says "words and music" by Allen Vern Morningstar, though this paper just has the words.
The song is entitled "Soldier Boy".
I sent a copy to the KVA, but no one has been able to confirm if Charlie was also Clayton?
Just curiosity. My mom can remember dad mentioning the Morningstar name, but doesn't remember any details. I would be happy to share a copy of this song with the family, if I could verify who this man was.
Thanks for any help.
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