Ralph V. Lewis: Sometimes the "survivors" don't

Ralph Verle Lewis

We'll never know why Ralph Lewis paused while walking west on Lucas Avenue in north Chariton just before midnight on Oct. 9, 1957, put the muzzle of a .410 shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger. 

But sometimes "survivors" do not survive and this brave and honorable young man ---  just 34, a decorated U.S. Navy veteran of World War II who had lived to tell about the night his ship was torpedoed out from under him --- was one who did not.

He had shared his thoughts with no one; left nothing behind to explain his action.

In the aftermath, a flat marble military tombstone was ordered to mark his grave in the Chariton Cemetery, but time and the elements have not been kind to it. He left no immediate family here to remember him or to tell his story.

But it is a story worth remembering --- and telling so far as we can.

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Ralph's father, David E. Lewis, was a Russell boy, a carpenter by trade who had moved west to Chamberlain, South Dakota, in the years before World War I and married Marie Rekdahl there on June 2, 1915.

Ralph, their fourth child, was born in Chamberlain on March 28, 1923, welcomed by three older siblings --- Dorothy, Edward and Leonard. Two years later, Bobby was born.

Five days after that, Marie died on Ralph's second birthday, March 28, 1925.

David, not up to the challenge of raising his young family alone, gave Bobby up for adoption. Ralph was brought to Chariton to be raised by his childless aunt and uncle, Anna and Charles Lewis, a coal miner. David moved the rest of his family to Shell Rock, Iowa, where one of his brothers and a sister lived.

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Ralph seems to have flourished in Chariton. Not athletically inclined, he excelled in music and journalism and served as editor of the Chariton High School newspaper of that time. After graduation with the class of 1941, he went to work in the shop of the Chariton Newspapers.

Then Pearl Harbor --- and on Christmas Eve, 1941, Ralph went to Des Moines and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In 1942, he was home-based at Pearl Harbor himself, assigned to the the U.S.S. Navajo (AT-64), an oceangoing tugboat with a crew of approximately 100.

The Navajo survived several major engagements, but a Japanese torpedo nailed it on Sept. 12, 1943,  en route from Pago Pago, American Samoa, to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu).

The Navajo sank within minutes and 17 crewmen were lost, but a majority survived and Ralph was among those fished from the waters of the South Pacific a few hours later by the crew of another U.S. vessel.

Two months later, Ralph returned to Chariton on furlough and on Nov. 1, 1943, was invited to attend one of countless meals served during World War II at the American Legion Hall by World War I veterans and their wives for young men slated to leave within the next few days for basic training. Ralph, an honored guest, was invited to speak; the editor of The Chariton Leader was present; and he transcribed the young man's remarks, published as follows on Page 1 of the next day's edition:

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I went into service two years ago. After six weeks, I was at Pearl Harbor. From there we went out to sea. We had a good ship.

We were around Guadalcanal for about 10 months. We were in four major engagements. We came back to the states for awhile, and then we went to sea again. We were sunk. That's about all there was to it.

It happened around midnight. I had gone up to relieve my buddy on watch. All at once there was an explosion. About 60 feet of the bow went into the air. Then water and steel rained down all around us. We didn't get a scratch.

We forced our way through the hatch to pick up life jackets. There was no light except for the electricity shooting out from broken wires. I climbed back to the deck. I saw my buddy slide over the side. A big pile of steel and water slid behind him and I never saw him again.

Nobody seemed afraid. There was a lot of wise-cracking and joking.

I went into the water. The ship disappeared --- just two minutes after the torpedo hit. I was in the water between two and four hours. Another ship, working in complete darkness, picked up 64 of our 80 men. The first man I saw when I was taken aboard was Ed Mahoney of Chariton, a pharmacist's mate on the rescue ship.

Ed did a swell job of taking care of our fellows. I understand he has an advance in rating, and he deserves it. We had 13 hospital cases and we only lost one man (who survived the initial torpedo attack).

We had a dog for a mascot that was born in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. She had been on our ship since February, 1942. We could keep her because our's was a small ship. Three days before the sinking she had 11 puppies. The last we saw of her she was swimming around with one of the pups in her mouth.

I have a picture of her. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

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Ralph returned to active duty after that and during the spring of the following year, in one of those odd circumstances brought about by war, was reunited in Hawaii with his brother, Bobby, only five days old when the Lewis family was splintered.

The Chariton Leader reported that story, too --- on the front page of its edition of May 30, 1944:

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Brothers separated 19 years recently were reunited by the United States Navy. They are Ralph Lewis of Chariton and Bobby Rutan of Chamberlain, S.D. Ralph is 21, Bobby is 19.

Their mother died when Bobby was just five days old. He was adopted by a Rutan family and Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Lewis of Chariton took Ralph, then two years old, into their home.

There are two other boys in the family, also in service --- one in New Guinea and the other now in California after service with the Seabees in the Aleutians. Ralph also has a sister, Dorothy.

Four of the children have frequently exchanged visits and correspondence, but none of them had succeeded in locating Bobby until the sister learned of his whereabouts through the Navy's personnel bureau.

Ralph and Bobby had their reunion at Pearl Harbor, where Bobby, also in the Navy, is serving with a ship repair unit. They had several visits, on shore and aboard Ralph's ship.

Mrs. Lewis last week received a picture of Bobby. He resembles Ralph very much. In a letter to Mrs. Lewis, Bobby said Ralph had left Pearl Harbor and told how he had enjoyed their reunion.

The mother of the two boys died during a flu epidemic. She suffered a relapse after leaving her bed to care for her children, also ill with the disease.

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As World War II ended, Ralph decided to make the Navy his career --- and he seems to have flourished. By 1957, he had advanced to the rank of chief petty officer and at age 34 was just four years short of retirement, had he wished to do so.

He returned to visit his surrogate parents in Chariton as often as possible during those years, but Charles Lewis died at 72 during July of 1950 and Anna followed a year later, during November of 1951. Ralph was home-ported at Charleston, South Carolina, at the time, and continued to visit old friends in Chariton when he could, as well as his sister and brothers in northeast Iowa now and then.

During late May of 1957, Ralph's birth father, David Lewis, died at 72 of tuberculosis at the Oakdale Sanitarium, Iowa City, and his remains were brought to Cedar Falls for burial.

That September, Ralph spent several days with his siblings --- Dorothy White in Cedar Falls, Ed Lewis in Dysart and Leonard Lewis in Vinton. He was assigned at the time to the U.S.S. McGowan, then anchored at Newport, Rhode Island, and had just signed up for what could have been his final tour of duty if he decided to retire four years later.

Ralph arrived in Chariton on Saturday, Sept. 21, to visit with old friends, including Harriett McRoberts, the mother of a high school friend, in her modest home at the corner of North Main and Lucas.

And then, inexplicably on Oct. 9, he took his own life, as reported in The Herald-Patriot of Thursday, Oct. 10:

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Ralph V. Lewis, 34, of Chariton, took his own life about 11:55 last night after telling his plans to Mrs. Andy McRoberts, in whose home he was staying while on leave from the Navy.

Friends could give no reason for Lewis' actions. They reported he would have been eligible for retirement from the Navy in four years and was home on leave after re-enlisting for his last term. He held a Chief Petty Officer's rating. He had shown no despondency while visiting here.

According to the sheriff's office, Mrs. McRoberts called at 11:55 a.m. from her home at 833 North Main and said Lewis had just told her he was going to shoot himself. He left the house carrying a .410 shotgun.

Deputy Vernon White found Lewis' body about one-half block west of the home. He had placed the muzzle of the shotgun to his head.

A Chariton high school graduate, he had been reared by his (uncle), Charles Lewis. His father and mother are both dead and he has no known relatives in this area. Services are being arranged by the Beardsley Funeral Home.

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We'll never untangle now the threads of despair that killed Ralph Lewis some 60 years ago, but the least we can do is remember his story.

Find a Grave photo by Doris Christensen