Miscellaneous - Edna Hawkins Reaches 90th Birthday without Glasses

Woman Reaches 90th Birthday Without Glasses

 

 

Mrs. Edna Hawkins, Hawley Street resident [Binghamton, Broome Co., NY], who is observing her ninetieth birthday today reads four newspapers daily and has never worn a pair of glasses in her life.  Healthy and active despite her age, Mrs. Hawkins keeps well informed on war news because she has three great grandchildren in the army.  The aged woman planned to cut a birthday cake for her friends and relatives from 2 o'clock this afternoon until 9 o'clock tonight at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Olive Howells, 1 Hawley street.  Mrs. Hawkins was born in Locust Hill, Pa.  She is the widow of the late Wellington Hawkins of Tunnel [Broome Co., NY].  Mother of two children, Mrs. Howell and William Hawkins of Great Bend, Mrs. Hawkins has three grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren.  The great grandchildren whose army careers she follows with such interest are all Binghamtonians.  They are Harold Fairchild,  mess sergeant at Fort Devens, Mass., Sergt. Orlo Fairchild, also of Fort Devens and Sergt. Walter Fairchild of Fort Di.  Flory Fairchild, brother of the three servicemen, received his physical examination for the army Saturday..  [MHD notation, Feb. 2, 1942]

 

 

Mrs. Eva M. Robinson Presented with Award

by Major Thomas Cronan, Head of City Recruiting Office

 

Four sons in the fighting services--that is the contribution of Mrs. Eva M. Robinson of 50 Whitney Avenue, Binghamton, to the war against aggression.  In recognition for this sacrifice, Mrs. Robinson was signally honored when she was presented a four-star Emblem of Honor by Maj. Thomas D.L Cronan, head of the Binghamton Army Recruiting Office, on behalf of the Emblem of Honor Association of New York City. 

 

Mrs. Robinson was the first Triple Cities area woman to be so honored.  Mrs. Robinson's four sons are in the army, three of them Tech. Sergt, Orlo Fairchild, 22; Staff Sergt. Harold Fairchild, 27; and Sergt. Walter Fairchild, 21, all enlisting through the local office between 1935 and 1939, while the fourth, Floyd Fairchild, 24, was inducted into the service in February.  Her fifth son, age 7, is a bit too young for the service.  For this reason, the association, which is made up of mothers of service men, saw fit to honor Mrs. Robinson by making the award.

 

In sending the emblem, which is a gold-plated pin featuring an eagle, a chevron, and a scroll held in the eagle's talon, Martin Stern, secretary of the association wrote, "we believe that any woman who contributes so handsomely to the defense of her country is deserving of an award of this kind and recognition not only by her own community but by the nation as a whole."

 

The association, it was explained, is aiming to exemplify the old service flags of 1917-18 which carried stars representing the number of sons each family had in the service.  Instead of a flag, the emblem presented each mother has a star on its scroll of each loved one serving the colors.  So far since the war began, six is the largest number of stars appearing with any emblem, that representing the number of sons one of the nation's mothers has in the service.

 

The four Fairchild men in service are the fourth generation of the family living, representatives of five generations being alive today  Oldest is Mrs. Edna Hawkins of Great Bend, Pa., age 90, while the grandmother, Mrs. Olive Howells of 1 Hawley Street represents the second generation, Mrs. Robinson, the third, and Myra Elizabeth, daughter of Private Walter Fairchild, the fifth.  [MHD notation:  Aug. 20, 1942]