Alpheus Eugene Clonts

Alpheus was born the youngest of two boys to Grace M. Turner and Arthur Brockett Clonts. She was one of the Harvey Girls. When Al was 4 years old his mother was taken to the sanitarium because she had tuberculosis. He never saw her again. She died when he was 8 years old. Al's father remarried and I am not sure what happened after that but they went by train to St. Louis and who ever took them off the train was not kind to them so they ran away and lived in the streets and ate what ever they could until they were old enough to work and earn money. Al eventually joined the US Navy and became an arial photographer. His rank was photomate 1st class. He was on the USS St. Lo when it was sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in WWII. He floated in the water singing "You are my sunshine" and "How great thou art" until the USS Butler picked him up. He had given his life jacket to a fellow sailor who had his leg blown off. He was wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart. Once out of the Navy he worked for the St. Louis Post Dispatch Newspaper before going to work for Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, VA. It was there that he met Frances Lawson Thurston, a receptionist. They were married on April 9, 1955. Al was elected to the Belpre, Ohio City Council. He then attended the University of Missouri at Rolla, MO formally known as UMR, to become a Chemist Consultant. We moved to WI in 1978. His greatest legacy is his love and compassion for all animals great and small. I have seen him take severely injured dogs and take the time to teach them to walk again and he cared for them until his death. We always had every stray animal in the city at our house and all were loved and cherished. He was a kind man with a heart of gold. If he knew someone who was hungry, or cold he would welcome them into our home and treat them as family. He would give anyone the shirt off his back. He died of a ruptured abdominal anurysm in his aorta. He was 82.