Born to Thomas Jefferson Hollingsworth of Missouri and Susie E. Sharp Hollingsworth of Arkansas, Otis A. Hollingsworth was called Ode.[i]

Ode was born on November 7, 1894 in Oklahoma and was the oldest child of the couple. He grew up with younger siblings. His brother, Ernest Howard Hollingsworth was born on January 27, 1897 in Maysville, Oklahoma. His little sister, Gladys Molly Hollingsworth Lancaster, was born in Purcell, Oklahoma on February 9, 1906.[ii] His other sister was Alice Hollingsworth Hance and brother Lawton Hollingsworth and Tom Hollingsworth.

Ode grew up in Oklahoma. Sometime around June of 1917, he married Lenora “Nora” Edith Davenport Hollingsworth who was born in Arkansas.[iii]

Odessa Lou Hollingsworth was the first baby to grace the lives of Oklahomans Ode and Nora at their home in Wayne, Oklahoma.

As they were awaiting her birth, World War I loomed. In June of 1917, Ode registered for the draft. After registering, Ode was called to serve. He went with a McClain county contingent to Camp Travis, Texas, toward the later part of 1917 and then served over seas.

When Odessa was born at Thanksgiving time, November 24, 1917,[iv] it is likely that her father, Ode, had already left for the service. However, he did get a furlough the first week of January to spend with his wife and new baby.[v]

In August of 1918, Ode wrote home to Nora and baby Odessa from France. The letter was published in The Purcell Register newspaper. The letter begins “My Dear Wife and Baby.” It goes on to say:

Just a line to let you know that I am fine and dandy and hope that you are the same. There is very little of interest to write that will pass the censor. Am faring nicely, have plenty to eat and plenty of tobacco. Enjoyed my 4th of July quite well. England and France are beautiful countries with warm pleasant days and cool, comfortable nights, fine for sleeping.

Would sure like to see you and the baby. Have a nice dinner fixed for Christmas and I will be there to help you eat it. I was ------ days on the boat coming over. It was not a very pleasant trip. You couldn’t tell whether you were going ahead or down toward China but nothing happened. Did not get seasick but some of the fellows did.

Am glad to know that you have received your money. Suppose it will come regularly from now on. It takes your letters about thirty days to reach me and I expect that mine are longer reaching you as they have to be censored and your do not so do not worry if you do not receive mine regularly.

Have had quite a bit of rain here. It is hard to see a German in a fog but then it is also hard for him to see me so that evens the proposition up. Don’t think the war will last much longer. Hope to anyway. How is mother and the kids.

Have you ever received my insurance policy? Do write me often, giving me all the news. Nothing cheers me more than a letter from you.

Yours with love, Otis A Hollingsworth[vi]

Nora shared another letter on September 12, 1918 [vii]with The Purcell Register newspaper of Purcell, Oklahoma, which sits just 10 miles from their home in Wayne. She reported that her husband had been in France for four months and that he had gone “over the tops’ and made it through fine.

Apparently, that fog he mentioned wasn’t sufficient as Ode was severely wounded according to a casualty list[viii] in the Daily Oklahoma and reported on October 10, 1918.[ix] He came home to recuperate.

After the war, the family was living in a home they own in the town of Wayne. Ode was working as a farm laborer.[x] Following Odessa, came a little sister in 1920, Bertha Lee Hollingsworth[xi], and a little brother in 1922, Charles E. Boy Hollingsworth.[xii] Sadly, in a time before vaccinations, when Odessa was 7 years old in 1924, both Bertha and Charles died in the same week.

The Purcell Register newspaper reported on the small children’s deaths from diphtheria.
According to the May 8, 1924 paper, the children were just recovering from the measles when diphtheria developed. Bertha Lee died on a Wednesday and was buried on Thursday. Charles dies on that Saturday and was buried on Sunday.[xiii]

Three years following the sibling’s deaths, Ode and Nora had moved to Sulpher, Oklahoma where they had another baby boy and named him Harold Glenn Hollingsworth in 1925. They called him Pete.[xiv]

By 1930, the family, Ode, Nora, Odessa, and Pete, had made a change. They were now living in a rental home in Oklahoma City. Ode has a job working as a salesman for a candy factory.[xv]

Odessa attended high school for three years, leaving when she was 16 or 17.

In 1937, with one child still in school, Nora is busy with Parent Teacher Association activities.[xvi]

Just before the WWII years, daughter Odessa is working as a cashier in a drug store. She’s living with another single woman, Ready R. Young, in Oklahoma City. Ready works as a W.P.A. data office stenographer. In the early 40s, son Pete was attending Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City. After schooling, her brother Pete also joined the war effort. He served in the Navy.

Ode joined the war endeavor in 1944[xvii] by working in an Oklahoma factory. According to “Take-Off,” an Oklahoma City newspaper published in the interest of the personnel of the Oklahoma City Air Technical Service Command, Ode is working in the parts sorting unit.[xviii]

At the time of her enlistment in the army, Odessa was working as a tool sharpener and dresser. A dresser can refer to someone who handles costumes for theater performers or may work in the fashion industry dressing clients, fashion models or possibly dressing window displays.

Odessa Lou Hollingsworth, service number A-806104, followed in her father’s footsteps and served in the Women’s Army Corp, WACS, serving in the 1202nd Army Air Force Base Unit, WACS. On May 30, 1945, the plane she was in went missing on May 30, 1945 and she was declared dead while missing in action off the coast of Ghana, Africa.[xix] News of the missing planes made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. News of Odessa missing was The El Reno Daily Tribune in El Reno, Oklahoma.[xx] Read more about PFC Odessa L. Hollingsworth at https://www.fold3.com/page/83109935/odessa-l-hollingsworth/stories

Ode and Nora were notified via telegram. No details were given at that time but a press release from Washington followed with news of the missing plane.

Her brother, Pete, was given a 20 day leave of absence to be with his parents following her death.[xxi]

Nora and Ode were members of the Exchange Avenue Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.[xxii] They were frequently mentioned in the newspaper, as was the custom of the day, visiting various friends and relatives.

In 1959, Ode retired from Tinker Air Force Base after working there for 15 years.

“My grandfather lost both his legs after he came back and was in a VA hospital IN Muskogee. He never could prove it was service connected but he went three months in fox holes in freezing temperatures never removing his shoes. When he did, his socks were grown into his feet and had gangrene,” said Twyla Taylor, his granddaughter. She added he was also shot in the legs and back so it should have been service related, she said.

Otis A, Hollingsworth, WWI veteran, passed away in 1968 at his home from a heart attack. He is buried at Purcell’s Hillside Cemetery.[xxiii] His obituary stated he was survived by his son, grandson and granddaughter.

Ode and Nora’s children, Odessa, Bertha and Charles, are remembered on a marker is at the Hopping Cemetery in Wayne, Oklahoma. It reads “Lost Over the Atlantic.”[xxiv]

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

[i] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/19689750/person/202223892110/facts?_phsrc=Zvj232&_phstart=successSource

[ii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/19689750/person/202223892110/facts?_phsrc=Zvj232&_phstart=successSource

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/19689750/person/202223892525/story

[iv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56247750/odessa-lou-hollingsworth

[v] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/587352835/?terms=%22Otis%2Bhollingsworth%22

[vi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/587317566/?terms=%22Otis%2Ba%2Bhollingsworth%22

[vii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/587317566/?terms=%22otis%2BHollingsworth%22

[viii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/611266719/?terms=%22otis%2BHollingsworth%22

[ix] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/587317889/?terms=%22otis%2BHollingsworth%22

[x] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/74605139/person/370038976373/facts?_phsrc=Zvj222&_phstart=successSource

[xi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55587071/bertha-lee-hollingsworth

[xii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55587086/charles-c.-hollingsworth

[xiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/587161050/?terms=%22otis%2BHollingsworth%22

[xiv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56247750/odessa-lou-hollingsworth

[xv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/74605139/person/370038976373/facts?_phsrc=Zvj222&_phstart=successSource

[xvi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/594933009/?terms=%22Otis%2Bhollingsworth%22

[xvii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/658999736/?terms=%22otis%2Ba.%2Bhollingsworth%22

[xviii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/594950370

[xix] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

[xx] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/663755411/?terms=%22odessa%20hollingsworth&match=1

[xxi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/594950370

[xxii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/658999736/?terms=%22otis%2Ba.%2Bhollingsworth%22

[xxiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/658999736/?terms=%22otis%2Ba.%2Bhollingsworth%22

[xxiv] https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2016/57/55587071_1456638562.jpg

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