EARLY LIFE

Russell Graham Bishop Jr. was born on December 12, 1919 in Johnson City, Washington, Tennessee. His parents were Russell Graham Bishop Sr. (1896-1966) born in Maryland and Adeline W. Coulbourne Bishop (1897-1949) born in Virginia. Russell had two younger brothers, Allan Grayson Bishop and Weldon Randolph Bishop. The family lived in Tennessee and later moved to Washington D.C. Russell Sr. worked as the president of an electric company and later as a sales engineer in air conditioning. Adeline was a homemaker. In the 1940 U.S. Census Russell Jr. had completed four years of high school and was working at the Potomac E.P. Company. Russell Jr.’s WW II Draft Registrations describes him a 6 ½ feet tall and 155 pounds with Brown hair and blue eyes.

Russell married Elsie Marcia Brown (1921-2017) on March 13, 1942 in Duval, Florida. The couple had one son, Russell (Rusty) Graham Bishop III born on September 27, 1943. Rusty was born after his father’s death.

MILITARY

Russell Graham Bishop Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1940 in Washington D.C. His service number was #0791367. His rank was 2nd lieutenant. Russell trained at Ocala, Florida. He was serving at Smokey Hill Army Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas at the time of his death.

DEATH

2nd Lieutenant Bishop was on the way home to Smokey Hill Field in Salina, Kansas after a cross-country training flight to Galveston, Texas when the four motored army bomber crashed. The crash site was near Lebanon, Oklahoma. All nine men aboard the plane were killed in the crash. A witness said he saw an explosion in the sky and the plane fell to the ground and burst into flames that burned for hours. There were no survivors. The fateful date was January 6, 1943.

POST DEATH EVENTS

2nd Lieutenant Russell Graham Bishop Jr. was buried on January 15, 1943 in Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The address of his grave is sec.: 2 G:4749.

Elsie Marcia later married Dr. De Lloyd Cramp. Elsie and Russell’s son Rusty attended Valley Forge Military Academy. He died on August 5, 2008 in Las Vegas.

Thank you 2nd Lieutenant Russell Graham Bishop Jr. for your service and sacrifice! You will not be forgotten!

COMMENDATIONS

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

SOURCES

findagrave.com

ancestry.com

familysearch.org

Newspapers.com

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 WWII fallen saved on Together We

Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will

be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or

cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

This story was written by Kathleen Reber, a Stories Behind the Stars contributor.

Russell G Bishop Jr