US Army 1st Lieutenant Glen West St. John was born in Pensacola, Florida on March 20, 1924, the son of Earl Brewer St. John (1880-) and Bessie V. West (1883-1958). His parents were married on April 27, 1904, in Warren, Tennessee. His father supported the family as a machinist for the civil service at NAS Pensacola, an occupation he would use to retire. After attending local grade schools, Glen entered Pensacola High School where he graduated in 1942. A year behind him was a special young lady in his future by the name of Audrey Elizabeth Weekley (1925-) from the Class of 1943.
Prior to the war, Glen was employed in the advertising department of the Pensacola News Journal at 27 East Romana Street from 1940-1942. But then the war came, and America's young men and women were called forth to do their duty. Glen enlisted in February 1943 in the US Army Air Corps and volunteered for the flight program. He said goodbye to his parents at 1314 East Jackson Street and left for the military. After he was certified as a pilot he was sent overseas in January 1945, even though the war would end within five months. But before he left, he and Audrey were married on August 26, 1944, with the understanding she would live with her parents Louis William Weekley (1898-1972) and Beaulah Odessa "Dessie" Crooke (1899-1991) at 1800 East Avery Street.
Glen was assigned as a pilot to the 328 Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group stationed at Bodney, Norfolk, England and flew a total of seven combat missions. After the war ended in May, Glen was ordered to ferry an aircraft to Fritzlar, Germany on July 7, 1945. However, en route he and his flight ran into a storm, and he became separated from the others. His flight leader could not raise him on the radio and later they found that he had crashed near Kassel, Germany. His remains were recovered and buried in the St. Andrews Cemetery in Issum, GY. Today, he is located in the Netherland War Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.
Audrey would remarry in 1948 to Alex Baldwin Jr. (1922-1987), a civil service machinist at NAS Pensacola who had lost his first wife Ella A. Tidwell in 1947. Both had lost loved ones but now they had two sons David Alan and Larry Wayne Baldwin of their own. But then on the night of June 21, 1954, Audrey was walking with her two sons along Bayou Boulevard. Suddenly, a car driven by a Brewton man, Jesse Emmons swerved toward them. Audrey tried to grab the boys but failed before they were run over and killed. Emmons had been drinking heavily and out of fear sped off, cleaned up the car, and sold it. However, the father of four himself, he could not bear the guilt and gave himself up and confessed. He was sentenced in October 1954 to twenty years by Jude Ernest E. Mason.
Ironically, about the same time, an Ensley carpenter was being investigated for also running over the Baldwin brothers. According to the Bradenton Herald of July 11th, Alvin James Mayhair murdered a fellow carpenter, Claude H. Robinson with a hammer and wood chisel and then stabbed and killed his wife Thelma Robinson on June 28, 1954. The story came from the Robinson's 13-year-old son who said his parents were riding with Mayhair when he ran over and killed David and Larry Baldwin. Investigator Hamp Gandy considered the motive for the murder was to silence the only two witnesses of the hit and run. The Robinson bodies were discovered when an Eglin USAF crew was fighting a woods fire near Ft. Walton Beach. However, nothing came from out of this twisted allegation, and Mayhair was sentenced to two consecutive twenty-year sentences for the two murders.
Alex Baldwin Jr. would pass away unexpectedly in 1987 and was buried in Bayview Cemetery. However, in September 2009, Audrey made the news when her foot accidently slipped off the brake and hit the accelerator. Before she knew it, her car shot forward through the plate glass window of the "Around the Globe Travel Agency" on Creighton Road. Luckily, the 84-year-old Audrey was not injured.
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