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COVER STORY
Kenneth-left, Robert- middle, and Charles-right.
Chris Roden for the Laclede County Record
he internet and the
nightly news spotlight
the current division
Tin America.
But for two brothers visiting a
local eatery in Lebanon June 27,
togetherness was the subject of
conversation and their reason for
being in Lebanon.
Robert Henry made it clear how
he feels about his brother Kenneth. of the brothers to sign up after
“He’s my hero,” Robert
Henry said.
Kenneth Henry, 92, is ill and
in Christian Healthcare South.
“He’s not doing so well,”
Robert Henry, 90, said.
Charles Henry, the oldest broth- Marines as a corpsman and went
er at 93, drove from Waco, Texas,
a 10-hour drive to see Kenneth.
He downplayed the feat, indi-
cating sitting still was all it took.
Robert also drove himself in —
from Kentucky.
As Charles and Robert sat in
the Lunch Box Cafe on Lebanon’s
Commercial Street Wednesday
morning, eating breakfast prior to
visiting Kenneth, they wore their
World War II Veterans hats, Rob-
ert’s showing his Navy affiliation
and Charles’ making people guess
8
back to Lebanon to teach biology
at his Marines background.
Of these three Henry broth-
ers, Kenneth is the one with the
strongest ties to Lebanon.
The Henry boys’ father served
as a petty officer in WWI and
WWII. When he retired in 1945,
he and his wife bought a little
farm near Dove Church.
Kenneth Henry was the first
Pearl Harbor. He went into the
Navy at 15 in March 1942 and
was the only one to return to
Lebanon after the war to live
and work.
“He was transferred into the
through some terrible, terrible
times,” Robert Henry said.
As a corpsman or medic in
other branches, Robert Henry
saw the bloody results of war,
patching up fellow members of
the Greatest Generation as best
he could.
After his discharge as a petty
officer second class, he finished
high school and went to college
to get a teaching certificate. He
worked for the CIA for a time,
working in Korea before coming
and then at Stoutland.
He came back to Lebanon as an
assistant principal before going to St.
Charles as a principal around 1970
and retired in 1984 and moved to
Arkansas. After his wife died a year
or two ago, he returned to Lebanon
and fell ill.
He lives in Christian Healthcare
South.
So Charles and Robert returned to
Lebanon to see their brother, to see
Robert’s hero.
Robert Henry was the second
Henry to join the Navy. He went in
four months after he turned 16 and
spent five years there. He worked
another 34 years for the government
in the then brand new field of data
processing that began with paper
punch cards before retiring in 1983.
“I’ve been retired quite a while. I
know nothing about it now because
it’s advanced so much,” Robert Hen-
ry said.
He entered the service in 1944
and served on San Miguel Island,
about 30 miles off the coast of Cal-
ifornia, as part of the defense of the
mainland against further Japanese
attacks.
“They didn’t have all the commu-
nication and detection ability they
have today, so they manned all those
islands as the first form of warning,”
Robert Henry said.
After he got out of the service,
he worked for the Navy for exactly
three years as a Machine Accountant
Third Class before transferring to the
Air Force in San Bernadino, Calif.
and then to Strategic Air Command
in Omaha, Neb. for four years and
finally to Dayton, Ohio.
He bought the Donnelly House
on South Adams street in 1984,
thinking he would make the move