My dad, Robert Lee Rutledge, was born on December 20, 1916 in Stewart County, Georgia. He was the middle child of Walter Cumbie Rutledge and Fannie Mae Dunaway Rutledge. His older brother was John Walter (Jay) Rutledge and his younger sister was Louise Rutledge Williams. He grew up on a farm and graduated from Lumpkin High School, Class of 1934. After his high school graduation, he worked on the family farm and also was a valued employee of the C.P. Trotman Company in Lumpkin, Georgia.

My Mother, Marguerite Cannington, and my Dad were married on December 25, 1937. I was born on September 18, 1939 and my brother, Robert Leron Rutledge, was born on May 16, 1941. My dad bought a small farm and built a house for our little family. He also continued to work at the C.P. Trotman Company. He was a member of the Georgia National Guard before he entered active duty on March 23, 1944 at Ft. McPherson, Georgia. He was assigned to Fort McClellan, Alabama for his basic training for seventeen weeks. Then he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland where he remained until September, 1944 when he was shipped to Europe where WWII was raging.

While my Dad was sailing on a ship to Europe he wrote me a letter explaining why he could not be with me on my fifth birthday, September 18, 1944. Of all his many letters that my mother and grandmother saved that he wrote to family, I treasure my fifth birthday letter which I want to quote a part of it: "What sweet memories I have today. It carries me back 5 years ago. We thought we were as happy as could be until God sent you down to us. You'll never know how proud I am of you. I've always, since that day, have done everything for your benefit. I never dreamed of being away from you as I am now. You are too young to understand it now, but you will later. It's all for your benefit. You came into a free world and I want you to finish in one." Little did he know that 60 years later the President of the United States, George W. Bush, would be using this portion of his letter to me in a speech celebrating VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) at the US Military Cemetery in Margraten, Holland on May 8, 2005. The Executive Office of the White House called and told me that President Bush had read my letter, which I had posted on a WWII Website, and that he was touched by it and wanted permission to use a portion of it in his speech. Of course, I gave him permission .... anything to honor my Dad and to keep his memory alive. The website http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_rlrutledge.html is where the President's speech writers found the letter I am sure. The USA TODAY contacted me as a result of this website and on May 6, 2005 the USA TODAY featured my Dad in an article "Grateful Dutch still honor fallen Americans" which I consider a very big honor to my dad and his comrades.

Only forty-one days after my Dad wrote my birthday letter he was killed in action fighting an intense battle against a brutal attack by two German divisions in the vicinity of Meijel, Holland. He is buried at the US Military Cemetery in Margraten, Holland, where Dutch friends have visited his grave, carried beautiful flowers and said prayers since 1945. I am very grateful to Gertie and Harry Heyman de Klerk, who visited his grave site until their deaths in the 1980's. Now, Martien and Ellemien Salden, our dear Dutch friends visits my Dad's grave site on every special occasion with flowers and prayers.

I have just a few very vivid memories of my Dad ..... I only wish I had more. My mother and grandparents kept his memory alive with my brother and me as we were growing up. And when I was 62 years old I was blessed with the many, many letters that he had written while he was in service. I learned so much about my Dad from these letters and realized that my brother and I had inherited many of his traits. In reporting my Dad's death, his hometown newspaper, The Stewart-Webster Journal, described him as "a good citizen, who believed in the highest ideals of integrity and loyalty in every relationship of life. His quiet, courteous and unassuming manner, his principles of honest, clean living endeared him to his family and to his friends. He answered the call for fearless men who are not afraid to fight and die for a just and righteous cause. His clean life, his conscientious service for this country and his death in young manhood are a challenge to the hearts of those who knew him. Robert will not return, but the principles for which he lived, fought and died will live on in the memory of all." This is the way I will remember my Dad. I missed having him at home while I was growing up, I missed having him walk me down the aisle when I got married, I missed having him to share with my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchild. I must say that we had a wonderful step father who told my brother and me that he could never take the place of our father, but that he would always be there for us, which he was until his death in1989. He would always say "now, I think this is the way your Dad would want you to handle this or that situation". I love my Dad and appreciate so very much what he and all his comrades did to grant the freedom that we Americans enjoy today. I look at his picture everyday and wish he were still here. My Mom is 91 years old and still in good health and still talks to me about my Dad.