Martha.. You Little Minx

John G. wrote me an email the other day that included a story about Martha Dooley. Remember Martha? She is the beautiful elder neighbor of the Griffioens that attended Arie's graduation party. Here she is pictured with Janice.

Well, at the time I met her I realized what a lovely lady Martha was.. but I didn't know much about her background. Here's the story as printed Valentine's day on the front page of the Shelbyville News that tells you a little bit more about the woman in the picture. Thanks John for passing this along!

Valentine's Day is usually viewed as a day to reconnect with loved ones, but the special day is also one that brings back memories of past or lost loves.

Today, 84-year-old Martha Dooley undoubtedly will think of Lyman Dooley, her husband of 35 years, but she also will remember her fiancé, Judge Clayton Hellums, who died in a tank battle in Lorraine, France, at the end of World War II.

Martha was 19 when she met a good-looking solider from Mississippi who was temporarily stationed at Camp Atterbury. She and her niece, Rosella Hatton, were a popular vocal duo who often sang in churches in southwestern Shelby County and even entertained the soldiers at Camp Atterbury. The two were introduced after Martha and Hatton sang at the St. Lewis Crossing Methodist Church in 1942. The young couple fell in love and were engaged before Hellums was shipped to Germany in 1943.

"We didn't really keep our engagement secret," Martha said, "but we didn't tell everybody, either. It was wartime, and the future was so uncertain."

Hellums marked the engagement with a gift of two rings to his fianceé, one a diamond and the other a cameo, and Martha has kept both rings as keepsakes over the past 67 years.

Like so many women who kissed their loved ones goodbye as they left to fight overseas during World War II, Martha never saw her fiancé again. She received a telegram from Hellums' family in Mississippi that he was killed in France on Oct. 9, 1944.

"We lost so many boys in that war," Martha said with a sorrowful shake of her head. "I was so sad for a long time."

To deal with her loss, Martha continued to sing with her niece, and she is certain to this day that her music "is how I survived it." She even wrote a song about Hellums that was published, called "He's My American Hero."

The loss of a son, brother and fiancé to Hellums' loved ones was difficult enough, but Martha said the explosion of Hellums' tank was so complete that none of the men in the tank were ever found. There were no bodies to bury.

Along with the more than 10,000 American soldiers buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Avold, France, there are 444 names inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing, and Hellums was among their number.

Martha went on with her life, as people are wont to do, marrying Lyman Dooley in 1951, having three children - Kathy, Mike and Jon - and building a home on four acres in Flat Rock. Dooley even spent some time in Germany following World War II, and he remained in the Army National Guard and was even a member of the Air Force Reserve during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Martha and Hellums' sister, Winnie Sykes of Mississippi, remained in contact following his death, and the two women and their spouses even visited each other in Mississippi and Flat Rock.

"Lyman knew about Clayton," Martha said, "and he was never jealous about my being engaged before I met him. Remember that so many men died during World War II."

59 years later

The story of Hellums and Martha takes up again in 2003, 59 years after his death, when a Frenchman named Gerard Louis spots a shiny metal object, the identification tag of an American soldier, while he is taking a walk in the Forest of Parroy in France where many World War II tank battles took place.

In Oct. 1944, two American tanks were blown up by German fire during a devastating battle in the section were Louis walked. He said that the earth was different were he found the tag, speculating that the area was burned and noting that nothing would grow there.

The metal tag was inscribed with the name "CPL Judge C. Hellums" and his serial number, "34048072," and on the reverse side, the name "Martha" was engraved.

Louis was haunted by questions about Hellums and the identity of Martha, and he firmly believed that the tag should be returned to Hellums' family. The Frenchman decided to search for Hellums' relatives in America.

During his search, Louis was informed that Hellums was indeed listed as missing, and a superintendent at the French cemetery informed Louis that he would attempt to locate Hellums' family.

After not hearing any news for several years, Louis went to a local French newspaper, asking for its for its help in the search, and a journalist named Jean-Christophe Pignon publicized the search in a story entitled, "On the Trail of Corporal Hellums."

Hellums' family was actually found by a military research center in Belgium after researchers received a copy of Pignon's article.

Land of Lorraine

In 2006, Dwight Hellums, a brother of Cpl. Judge Clayton Hellums, received a letter hand-written in French that contained a picture of the identification tag, a copy of the news article about the search for Clayton's family and a map of the area where he was killed.

Louis wrote, "I am now happy to have located his family, and happy to know that your brother will not be forgotten on our land of Lorraine, where he gave his life for our freedom. I am proud to have brought the light on this tragedy."

Following the discovery, several members of Hellums' family actually traveled to France for a memorial service in Clayton's honor where they formally received the engraved tag, but Martha declined the invitation to go along.

"I am afraid to fly," she said. "I can't tell you how shocked I was to hear that the tag was found with my name on it."

In an additional touch of romance, the Frenchman Louis and Hellums' sister Winnie fell in love and married after meeting at the French memorial.

"It all seems so long ago," Martha said, looking at a picture of herself at 19 standing beside Hellums in his Army uniform. "But it is something that you never forget."