By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The phrase “get to know who you owe” came full circle at Oakwood Cemetery Thursday.
At a headstone flanked by American flags and a Vietnam conflict emblem, Karl Stoneburner Hook crouched beside his father’s memorial. Situated just behind a large headstone that marked the graves of Henrietta Stoneburner, E. Lester Stoneburner, Earl R. Stoneburner, and William N. Stoneburner, a memorial for Major John F. Stoneburner sat.
Hook’s father had died on Dec. 9, 1964, just two weeks after he landed in Vietnam.
The history of the Stoneburner family is a tragic story marked by patriotism that brings to mind tones of the movie Saving Private Ryan.
Rather than Matt Damon’s faded blue eyes gazing at the gravestone of Tom Hanks’ character Captain John Miller, Hook sat in a chair at the Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, one blue-jeaned clad leg resting on the opposite knee as he told what he knew of his family’s history. Hook peered through his black-frame glasses at the ancestry.com history Deb Pinion, Director of the Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, had provided for him.
Though Hook knew parts of his family history, much of it was still shrouded in mystery for him. This year marked 50 years since Hook’s father’s death and, in an effort to find out more about his father, Hook went on a quest to find his father’s marker in his birthplace.
Luckily, a search for his father’s marker at Oakwood Cemetery led him to the Bucyrus Cemetery Walk. This past summer, another Cemetery Walk had been held at Oakwood Cemetery, an event that showcases local families and the history they represent to the area. Jim Cox, dressed as a train conductor and portraying Lester Stoneburner, told the story of the Stoneburner brothers.
Lester Stoneburner had been born in Bucyrus and had served in World War I. He married Henrietta Brinkman and together they had three sons: William, Earl, and John.
First Lt. William N. Stoneburner, a bomber pilot in the 8th Air Force, was killed in action at the age of 22 when his plane went down in Germany on Oct. 17, 1943. His remains were never recovered.
Pfc. Earl R. Stoneburner, an infantryman in the 78th Infantry Division, was killed in action in Germany on April 8, 1945 at the age of 22.
At the brink of the Vietnam conflict, the youngest brother John had the world at his feet.
“He had a bright future in front of him,” Hook explained. “He was getting his Ph.D. in nuclear physics in New Mexico.”
John was involved with the group that came out of the Manhattan Project. He received his master’s at the University of Arizona in Tuscon before going to New Mexico for his Ph.D.
Too old to be drafted and the sole surviving heir, John did not have to join the military. But patriotism ran strong in the Stoneburner family. Though John wanted to be a pilot, his mother forbade it because of his brother William’s death. Rather, he became a paratrooper.
“It was very strange for a nuclear physicist to go to Vietnam,” Hook said.
“She (Hook’s mother Barbara) was very angry with dad,” Hook said. “(She) very rarely wanted to talk about (it). He didn’t have to go; he wasn’t drafted to go. He volunteered. Even before the U.S. was in the conflict he was going to serve as a (advisory role).”
John was part of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam. He was killed in action on Dec. 9, 1964 in Vietnam at the age of 34.
Hook said his mother Barbara had been hanging Christmas lights when she saw the military car pull up outside her home to tell her the news of her husband’s death. To this day, Hook said his mother rarely talks about what happened.
John is buried at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. A memorial was also placed at Oakwood Cemetery.
Barbara, a young Karl, and his sisters Janine and Leslie still had to move on.
“We got adopted by . . . my dad’s class at West Point,” Hook said. “They basically all adopted us. They all took care of her. I guess that’s how she met my step-dad was because they just said ‘let’s get you. You’ve got three kids on your own growing up, he’s got two kids. He’s a widower. Hey, let’s fix you all up, Yours, Mine and Yours thing.’”
Hook was adopted by his stepfather and his last name changed from Stoneburner to Hook.
As Pinion prepared for the Cemetery Walk this past July, she searched for any living relatives from the Stoneburner family. Though people knew John had a son named Karl, no one was able to locate the correct Karl Stoneburner.
That is, until the former Karl Stoneburner—now Karl Hook—found out about the Oakwood Cemetery Walk two weeks after the event occurred.
“I wanted to find out where the cemetery was,” Hook explained. “I was looking for the cemetery address is what I was doing. And so, in the process I was looking for Oakwood Cemetery and the first hit was the Cemetery Walk.”
He said it was perfect finding out about this now at the 50th observance of his father’s death.
Hook reached out to local media, who put him in touch with Pinion, who then put him in touch with Cox.
Hook and his wife Deborah traveled from their home in Tallahassee, Florida to visit their son in Indianapolis this past week. They decided to make the extended trip to Bucyrus to meet the people who had honored his family and to visit the graves of his family.
Under a bright blue sky, Hook knelt by his father’s marker, straightening the flags and adjusting the emblem. For long moments, he did nothing more than gaze at the headstone and occasionally look out sightlessly to the surrounding rolling hills dotted with white gravestones.
“I’m very overwhelmed by the attention that’s been paid to the family,” Hook said. “This was going to be a solo somber moment just for myself but to see the support of the community has just been overwhelming, especially since it’s been 50 years.”
Hook said the motto of the Cemetery Walk, “get to know who you owe,” is especially important to him now.
“Our theory is that if you understand how your community was formed and the people that formed it, then you’ll be more ingrained in your community and therefore you’ll be more active in your community,” Pinion added. “If you don’t know your history and it isn’t passed on, then how can you ever feel like a part of it?”
Cox, who had immersed himself in the Stoneburner family, seemed to agree.
“I think the thing that struck me the most was how, researching your family, is how your uncles as well as your father, how quickly things happen. Your two uncles are bright young men obviously, just barely beginning life and stuff happens,” Cox told Hook. “Serving their country was honorable but it just rips you out because years later they could have been telling stories about what was going on. But even your father was going over there to try to defend something.”
“We use to say it’s a small world. It’s a much smaller world now because of the internet and that’s how we all connected together here,” Pinion said. “It’s just amazing that here we are sitting here talking about three young men that gave up their lives for their country and he’s learning more about his father than probably he would have known.”
“Had it not been for this, I truly believe that,” Hook said.
Hook is a research professor at Florida State University. He continued his family’s legacy of heroism and dedication by serving as a volunteer fire chief for 18 years. His wife Barbara is a retired teacher. They have two grown sons who live in Indianapolis and Birmingham.