US Navy Ensign James Royston Suggs was born in Old Dock, Columbus County, North Carolina on June 6, 1921, the son of Leroy R. Suggs (1892-1981) and Theresa Ethel Snow (1894-1987). His parents would marry in 1915 in Surry County, NC and spent most of their lives farming with one period where they ran a retail grocery. Upon their death they were buried in Whiteville, NC where they rest today next to their son.
Leroy's grandfather and James' great grandfather was a trooper in Company "A" of the 7th South Carolina Regiment of Confederate Cavalry. This company was also known as "Tucker's Cavalry" commanded by Captain John H. Tucker. He and his company would fight in the engagements at the Petersburg Siege, New Market Heights, Roper's Farm, Sayler's Creek, and finally Appomattox Court House.
As for James, he would graduate from high school in Columbus County, NC and would graduate from North Carolina State University in 1942 with a degree in agriculture education. He was a member of the FFA Club as well as ROTC. He took a job at the Portsmouth, Virginia Navy Yard before his enlistment in the Navy on December 14, 1942. Entering the Navy's flight program, he was sent to NAS Pensacola where he earned his wings and commission as an Ensign. It was here in Pensacola that he also won the heart of a young girl by the name of Miss Emily Suzanne Morrison (1921-1967). She was a graduate of the Pensacola High School Class of 1938 and the daughter of Robert Bruce Morrison (1891-1970) and Frances Stewart (1889-1980).
By March 1944, James had been transferred to NAS Banana River in Brevard County, Florida, which was the home of a PBM Mariner squadron, an aviation navigation training school, and aviator bombing training. A month later Emily and James were married there on April 15, 1944.
It is unknown whether he was flying a cross country training mission or had been stationed in California but regardless he was severely injured in a crash landing in Oakland on Thursday November 23, 1944. Emily was notified at her parent's home at 107 West Gregory Street and left immediately by train to be at his bedside. When she was finally reached in Kansas City while enroute, she was told he had succumbed to his injuries in the Hollingsworth Marine Hospital on Friday November 24th. His remains were then sent to Whiteville, NC to his parent’s home in Old Dock, NC. There he was buried in the Palmyra Baptist Church Cemetery.
Emily would marry again in Pensacola on October 14, 1950 to David Whitman Young (1925-1975), an assistant at St. Regis Paper Company in Cantonment, Florida. Sixteen years later Emily would pass away in 1967 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was buried in the Van Hornesville Cemetery, Herkimer County, New York.
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