Norman Milner
PFC
7th Division
USMC
USS West Virginia


Norman Milner was born in 1905, the middle child of 13 children, into a coal mining town in Clarion County, Pa.  His Mother died in 1915 2 weeks after giving birth to her 10th child.  They lived in company housing, shopped at the company store, saw the company Doctor.  The children all lived to adulthood in spite of it.  He only got to go through the 8th grade in school because it cost money to go on to high school.  He did study on his own later.  He traveled with a circus for a year because "they fed good".  He also worked in the mines in his teen years.  When he turned 18 he saw a Marine recruiter and decided that they also fed well and had nice uniforms, so he enlisted.  He was sent to Parris Island to boot camp, September 11, 1923.  He was at least part of the time stationed aboard the USS West Virginia.  He relates about the time he was in Panama and laid on the beach and fell asleep.  He got so sunburned he had to go to the hospital.  He was discharged June 11, 1927 at Great Lakes.  There were not a lot of jobs available at that time but he did get a job at the post office in Chicago.  There he met and married our Mother in 1931.  He worked with the Postal Service as a clerk for a number of years then as a carrier.  He went to a rural route out of Princeton, Ky, then when the WWII started he came to Evansville, IN to work at Republic Aviation.  After the war he returned to the Post Office now in Evansville as a carrier where he stayed until he reached 60 years.  He retired to devote time to his bookkeeping and tax service which he did very well.  He died in 1997 at age 92, and is buried in Locust Hill Cemetery in Evansville.

Contributed by Sandy Egnew


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