大象传媒

In the 1940鈥檚 many women were recruited in to the land army, one of these was my grandmother Alice Mary Deadman. She lived and worked at Cleeve House in Exwick. It was here one day while picking up turnips that she had dropped off a cart that she had a chance meeting with one of the GI鈥檚 stationed in the area. He was billeted at Exwick House and was known by the name Lee Haynes. A romance started that was to lead to the birth of a baby boy named Dave.
Mary Deadman moved to Leicester to raise her child as Lee Haynes was shipped to Europe to fight the war. Mary wrote many letters to Lee but they were all returned marked 鈥淢issing presumed killed鈥�. Unable to raise the child on her own baby Dave was adopted.
When he was 12 years of age Dave was informed that he was adopted. As he grew older he grew curious of who his parents were. He settled down and got married and started to search for his parents. After several years of searching he managed to find his mother Mary Deadman. Questions were raised as to who his father was and all the information he could get was that he was a US soldier named Lee Haynes who came from Joplin Missouri. His birth date was May 24th 1920. Mary also gave Dave a couple of photographs of his father.
Dave searched for several years to find his father, all the military records were lost or missing and census reports drew a blank. Dave and his wife Diane visited the US several time in their search, even looking in the phone books and knocking on doors of anyone with the surname Haynes but to no avail.
I am their son, Paul. I started to conduct my own search about 15 years ago and I started to look in places my father may have missed. Accessing library records, military records even writing to President Clinton for help. One of my searches bought me to Exwick to search for Exwick house. I visited the Library in Exeter to look for maps, I had several links but when I visited Exwick I couldn鈥檛 locate Exwick House.
My wife Tracey suggested contacting the local paper for information. This I did and the response I received was amazing. People who walked their dog remembered walking past the place, local people sent me maps of its exact location, and several sent me photographs. A lot of people just wanted to share their memories of the 鈥淎merican Invasion鈥�. All were gratefully received and the number was just too great to reply to everyone so I posted a thank you message in the Express and Echo. I kept in touch with a couple of people who seriously went out of their way to help. One of these was Sue Jackson.
While searching the Internet one day I came across a genealogy web site. I had a search around and found a message board where you could post messages to help in your search for your ancestors. I posted a message along the lines of 鈥� Looking for Lee Haynes in Missouri, He had a brother named Duke. Possibly born May 24th 1920鈥�.
A month went by and I had practically forgot about the message I had posted until one evening I received an email from Darrell and Angel Wood in Idaho. The email said that they knew of a Lee Haynes who came from Joplin Missouri who had a brother Duke. This I thought was too much of a coincidence, especially as I didn鈥檛 mention Joplin in my original message!
I contacted my father and told him about the email I had received. We both had a little chat about it and as we had been disappointed in the past with what we thought was a certainty, we didn鈥檛 expect too much to come of it. Between us we decided to contact Darrell and Angel and request a photograph of the Lee Haynes that they knew, preferably one of when he was aged in his twenties. A day went by and the following evening I received another email which had an attachment of a photograph. Upon opening the email I read the message and when I open the attachment there was my Grandfather looking back at me. The photo was taken at exactly the same time and place as the photographs my father had been given him by his mother all those years ago!
I emailed Angel straight back but attached the two photos I had of Lee Haynes stating, 鈥淒on鈥檛 read any further open the attachment! 鈥�.
My father was working an afternoon shift and didn鈥檛 return home until 10.30 that evening. I phoned my mother and told her the good news and arranged to go round there later on the evening when my father returned home. It was the longest wait of my life, four hours seemed like forty.
I was at my parent鈥檚 house when my father returned home and I greeted him in the dining room. I told him that I had received a photograph from Angel in Idaho. I had printed off the photo and I handed it to him. I was choked with emotion as I struggled to get my words out (as I am now while writing this). All I said was 鈥� I鈥檝e found him鈥�. It was very tearful as I hugged him. I went into the lounge where my mother and wife were waiting, my mother then went in to the dining room where my father was in tears. He had finally found what he had been looking for. Unfortunately Lee Haynes had passed away in 1979.
Later that evening my wife and I returned home and I checked to see if any more emails had arrived. I had received another email from Angel saying that Lee had another son in America named Meredith Lee and that she had contacted him to tell him the good news. It then dawned on me that my father has got a brother. I grabbed the phone and phoned him, it was 12.45 at night. My father answered the phone and you could hear the emotion in his voice. I simply said, 鈥� Your brother is still alive鈥�. 鈥淢y what?鈥� 鈥� Your brother鈥� I said, 鈥� He is still alive鈥�. My mother was next to my father and wondered what was happening. 鈥淚 have a brother, 鈥� he told her.
That weekend I was visiting my parents with my wife when the phone rang. My father ran to the phone, he knew it was his brother. They spoke for the first time. I also had a few words with Meredith Lee and he thanked me for not giving up my search.
Many emails were exchanged over the following months and I had contacted Sue Jackson to tell her the good news. I think she had forgotten about me, as it had been about five years since I had last contacted her.
Earlier this year plans were made to go and visit Idaho and meet up for the first time. My parents insisted I went along.
It was a long flight but at 12.30 at night on the 14th March we touched down in Spokane. The following morning we drove to Kellogg Idaho for the reunion.
We checked in at the motel and didn鈥檛 real know what to expect. My father was wondering what to say when they met, if they would get on ok or if there would be a likeness between them.
I decided to walk to a fast food place a few blocks away to eat as I was hungry. As I reached the far side of the car park I heard my name called. It can鈥檛 be me I thought as I don鈥檛 know anyone here. The voice called out again. I turned around to see my Uncle Meredith Lee standing in the doorway. I walked across and we hugged. We went back inside and I was introduced to his wife Karen and their son Matthew.
I led them around to my parent鈥檚 room and I knocked on the door. I had all intention of standing there and announcing the arrival of my father鈥檚 brother but I was too overcome by emotion and I stepped aside.
The door opened and there stood my father. He was standing face to face with the brother he had never met. They hugged and chatted and hit it off straight away.
As the days progressed we started to find out more about Lee Haynes. He was a WW2 and Korean war veteran who was awarded two purple hearts He was a miner working at the Bunker Hill mine in Idaho and when part of the mine collapsed killing several men, he went back in to recover the bodies so they could be buried. Meredith Lee also worked as a miner in Bunker Hill and when the neighbouring Sunshine Mine caught fire, he organised the search and rescue of the trapped miners. Unfortunately 91 men lost their lives.

Lee was my grandfathers middle name he was actually named Erie Lee Haynes. His birth date is also shown as 1919 and 1921.His birthplace was Waggoner Oklahoma. His brother Duke was actually Duard Booker Haynes. But despite all this, I found him!

Erie Lee Haynes had three children, my father, Meredith Lee and also a daughter Vicki Lee who died several years ago. Vicki Lee had a daughter Angel. It was Angel who answered my message. She thought I was looking for information on Duke.
After her time in the land army, Alice Mary Deadman returned back to Shoeburyness in Southend where she still lives
My father has found a brother and we have all found a very large family living on the other side of the Atlantic.

They said that they would come to England for a visit, I will be sure to bring them to Exwick so they can see where it all started.

My fathers story can be found in the Magazine "After the Battle " Issue number 128, page 35.

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