Long before Shirley Reese served his county as a Marine and died as a young man at only 32, he was #80 on the Wink Wildcat champion football team. This is a great team picture from 1937 Wink, Winkler County, Texas (I’ve lived in Texas my whole life and hadn’t heard of Wink until I bought this photo!) I picked Mr. Reese first simply because he’s smack in the middle. Here’s what I know about him:

Shirley Wayne Reese was born in Brown County, Texas on January 26, 1921 to Jesse and Mary Reese. He was the youngest of 4 siblings. In 1930 the family lived in Wink, Winkler, Texas. He enlisted in the war in January of 1943.  He married Elizabeth Rumley (1924-2007) in 1949 and they had 2 children. Shirley and Elizabeth lived in San Diego when, in 1953, Shirley was killed in a Marine Jet accident at the age of 32. He is buried in Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.

Hard to imagine looking at this picture, that this young man’s life was already half over. Rest in peace #80.