Spring 1991 A Soldier's Story 81 A Soldier's Story: The Life of Bob ToeWater Karen Regina Three boxes that are part of a manuscript collection in The Cincinnati Historical Society library contain the records and correspondence of a Cincinnati family named ToeWater. Sorting through the impersonal black boxes, the author uncovered an intriguing array of letters, memorabilia, documents, and photographs pertaining to the life of the ToeWater son, Frederick Robert. Gradually these fragments from the past fell into place, like pieces of a puzzle, to reveal the fascinating story of a young man whose life began with great hope and promise but ended tragically and prematurely in the cataclysm of World War II. Handling these family records with their intimate revelations into life and death proved to be a moving ToeWater's student records, and James A.D. Geier, Bob's experience. The story of Bob ToeWater is about family, childhood friend, provided insights into his youthful idealism, patriotism, valor, loss, and disillusion and is a story character. worth telling. For Cincinnatians who lived during those extraordinary years, Bob ToeWater's tale is likely to evoke On May 1, 1926, Charlotte Shipley ToeWater powerful memories of World War II and the sacrifices it delivered her first child, a son, at Christ Hospital in required. For those born in postwar years, it can provide Cincinnati, Ohio. She and her husband, George Myers insights into the hearts and minds of a generation for whom ToeWater, a local investment counselor, named their son the line between good and evil seemed more clearly drawn and Frederick Robert after his paternal grandfather, who bore the war was an endeavor to set the world right. given name of a long line of relatives dating back to fifteenth- World War II was a devastating war. Seventeen century Holland. Born into a Cincinnati family of wealth and million members of armed forces around the world perished, prominence, the announcement of Bobby's birth warranted and millions more civilians died. Josef Stalin, dictator of the several paragraphs in a local newspaper, along with this Soviet Union during the war, said that a single death is a prediction: "... surrounded by every luxury, already crowned tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. In trying to fathom the with tributes of flowers and gifts, Master Frederick Robert horror of war, the human mind can perhaps comprehend the ToeWater . has made so sturdy a start in life that if these loss of a single individual, a Bob ToeWater, better than it can first few days are any augury, he has a future in store for him the millions. The fiftieth anniversary of the United States' well worth following."1 entrance into World War II seems an appropriate time to At the time of Bobby's birth, the ToeWaters reflect upon what the loss of Bob ToeWater, and millions of lived at 3983 Parker Place, but by 1933 the family had moved others like him around the world, meant to family and nation. to a large home surrounded by trees at 5 Garden Place in East The reconstruction of the life of Frederick Walnut Hills where Bobby spent his childhood and adolescent Robert ToeWater that follows is based largely upon materials years. The home was classic in style, with dark woodwork, high in the collection turned over to the Society upon the death ceilings, and heavy wooden doors. For a time, three of Charlotte Shipley ToeWater, his mother, in 1962. The generations of ToeWaters lived in the house, until 1936 when Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, which Bob attended, also Bobby's namesake, grandfather Frederick Robert ToeWater, loaned materials, including yearbooks and documents from died. Karen Regina, Youth and Frederick Robert ToeWater School Programs Coordinator was born on May 1, 1926, to for the Cincinnati Historical Charlotte and George Society, has a master's ToeWater. degree in education from the University of Cincinnati. 82 Queen City Heritage George and Charlotte ToeWater clearly adored School, where he was an excellent student. His sixth grade their only child, and Bobby returned that affection. On Easter, report card, from the school year 1937-1938, reveals straight Valentine's Day, Christmas, and anniversaries, young Bobby A's in English, social studies, arithmetic, science, music, and sent greeting cards to his parents, who lovingly saved them physical education, and B's in handwriting and industrial arts; for posterity. Often he made the cards by hand and signed his lowest grades were two C's in art. The attendance record them with his nickname, "Bubs." On more than one card or shows that Bobby missed fifteen days of school in the spring gift tag, Bobby wrote that his mother was "the best mother term, far more days than he missed in earlier quarters, a fact in the whole world" and "my best girl."2 that can probably be attributed to his appendectomy in May. One Christmas, young Bobby penned a letter During boyhood and adolescence, young to Santa Claus in his childhood scrawl. Given the family's ToeWater spent several summers with his mother at Avon economic situation, Bobby's requests were rather simple. Lodge, a resort near Ludington, Michigan. Bob reveled in the "Dear Santa Claus, Please bring me a cowboy suit and high usual summer camp sports — baseball, tennis, golf, top boots, and some stamps. And I would like my big swimming, and fishing — and enjoyed dances, steak fries, and Christmas tree. I would like a long pointed ornament for the boat rides. George ToeWater usually stayed in Cincinnati, so top of my Christmas tree or a star. I would be glad to get Bob wrote his father frequently. These letters marked the anything you wanted to give me. With love, Robert beginning of a voluminous correspondence between son and ToeWater"3 Soon Bobby received a reply from Santa Claus parents that continued when Bob went off to prep school and at the North Pole in the form of a Western Union holiday into military service during World War II. Characteristically, telegram composed by his parents. "I shall come Christmas Bob's letters included detailed accounts of his recent activities Eve by airship, or sleigh, but be much too busy to make a and ended with expressions of affection. "Dear Daddy, Friday long stay=bringing some of the presents you wanted, good morning, Mother and I played golf.... Then I beat Mother boy,=so look in your stocking, you may find a toy. There also 2 out of 3 in shuffleboard. We had lunch and then ... I went will be a yule tide tree tall=and here's Merry Christmas to you in swimming and had dinner. I went to two plays ... and they and to all. Santa Claus"4 were pretty good. This morning I fixed your sand and it took 45 wagon loads of sand and 15 shovelfuls in each i • •• •. • wagonload. Quite a job. Lots of love and oodles and oodles ii - 5 I .r. & of kisses, Your devoted son, 'BubbyV A childhood friend, James Geier, remembers H • Bob as a bright and thoughtful but quiet boy. ToeWater and Geier counted Robert Pogue among their best friends, and 1 as m ' j • M!l • ;*| "; "-•_ *| • ,- M the trio spent many an afternoon playing and getting into ; J,. • / v l n boyish mischief. According to Geier, Bob was usually not bold • T«I •. • ,, According to a medical history kept by his mother, Bobby suffered the usual childhood ills, including mumps, measles, chicken-pox, influenza, and strep throat, and underwent a tonsillectomy in 1931 at the age of four-and-a- half and an appendectomy in 1938. Over the years, various doctors inoculated him against small-pox, diphtheria, typhoid, tetanus, and whooping cough, or pertussis; he tested negative for tuberculosis in 1942. Bobby attended nearby Hyde Park Elementary The ToeWaters lived at 5 Gar- Young Bobby often made den Place in East Walnut cards for his parents by hand Hills. and signed them "Bubs." Spring 1991 A Soldier's Story 83 702M W I STERN / LDC53 RR 61 NL GTG24 CNT 5 PGHS= NORTHPOLE VIA CINCINNATI OHIO MASTER ROBERT TOE WATER= DLR BEFORE 6P 5 GARDEN PLACE EWH CIN^ I SHALL COME CHRISTMAS EVE BY AIRSHIP, OR SLEjGH. BUT BE 6UCH TOO BUSY TO MAKE A LONG STAY= BRINGING SOME OF THE PRESENTS YOU 1ANTEDSGOQD BOY, =SO LOOK IN YOUR STOCKING, YOU MAY FIND A TOY, THERE ALSO WILL BE A YULE TIDE TREE TALL= AND HEREfS PERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND TO ALL. SANTA CLAUS. enough to initiate the mischief himself but was more than Edwards Road in Hyde Park where the ToeWaters were willing to follow the lead of the other boys. members. From the time of his confirmation until he left to In the fall of 1938, Bob entered the seventh complete his schooling in the East, Bob was a capable and grade of Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati's stately enthusiastic member of the Acolytes' Guild. At first his mother college preparatory school on Victory Parkway. During the was uncertain about the interest he would take because of his four years Bob spent at Walnut Hills, he was elected as devotion to baseball. But according to the church newsletter, freshman class president and sophomore class treasurer, "Bob quickly mastered the services of the church and by the joined Hi-Y, sang in the choir and glee club, and served on force of his personality exerted a powerful influence for good Student Council, in addition to winning awards for his over the other boys."6 scholastic abilities. Soon after he turned sixteen, Bob earned his ToeWater frequently mentions church-related driver's license, which offers one of the few physical activities in correspondence and documents that date to his descriptions of him.