John Virgil Gibson - Navy Recruit

In Clay County, West Virginia at Clay County High School, John Virgil Gibson was one of 6 boys on the School's first basketball team.

Virgil was one of 4 children and the youngest born to Luther Haymond Gibson and his wife Mary Chestina (Carden) Gibson. He was born 25 May 1899 in Braxton County, West Virginia, he was a cousin of writer and photographer Eudora Alice Welty and my Great Uncle. Virgil had brown hair and blue eyes, was short (his sister, my Grand-Mother was under 5' tall) and according to the draft registration in 1918 "stout".

In 1918 Virgil is accepted into the United States Navy and he is sent to Boot Camp at Naval Station Great Lakes, Great Lakes, Illinois.  Theodore Roosevelt approved funds in 1905 for Naval Station Great Lakes the first Naval Training Boot Camp to be built away from an ocean. The Naval Station officially opened in 1911.  While in training Virgil in late December Virgil develops Pneumonia and on 1 January 1919 he dies. His body is sent back to Clay County, West Virginia and he is buried in Reed-Stephenson Cemetery in Clay he was 19.