George Edwin Farrar, sole survivor of the Lead Banana on September 28, 1944, had been liberated and was expected to return home to Atlanta, Georgia in the near future.  He had written a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Buslee, parents of the Lead Banana’s pilot, John Oliver, (Jay) Buslee, while recuperating in France after also surviving POW camp and the Black March.  Mr. Buslee wrote to Farrar’s mother in response.

June 4, 1945
411 Wisner Avenue
Park Ridge, Illinois

Mrs. R. M. Farrar
79 East Lake Terrace, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Mrs. Farrar:

We have just received a letter from George stating that he is in France, and this I infer means that he will return home. For his sake and yours I hope there is no delay in his getting home.

Naturally he was very brief when writing to us and so we hope that he is in the best of health. Further, we would like very much to have a talk with him when he returns and so would appreciate hearing from him as soon as he gets home so that we can arrange for a trip to Atlanta to have a personal visit with him, which of course would be more satisfactory as it is difficult to cover in mail the subjects that we would like to discuss with him.

I am addressing this letter to you, but it is really a reply to the letter written by George, and I trust that he will so consider it.

Would appreciate receiving your telephone number in the event we should desire to call you on long distance telephone. For your information in the event we would request your telephoning us at our expense, reversing the charges, our telephone number is PARK RIDGE 541-J.

Sincerely hope that you have had equally good news pertaining to your other boys in the service.

Meantime, kindest regards,

Sincerely yours,
John Buslee

According to my dad’s youngest sister, Beverly, Mr. and Mrs. Buslee did indeed visit the Farrar’s in Atlanta after my dad returned home from the war.  Beverly was only eight years old at the time, but she remembers them visiting with my dad and his mother in the living room of their home at 79 East Lake Terrace.  My grandfather was very ill and bedridden and was not at this emotional meeting.

One more memory from my Aunt Beverly – as I have said, she was only eight years old when my almost twenty-four year old dad returned from the war.  He had been a slender man when he entered the war, but after spending seven months as a POW in Stalag Luft IV and on the Black March, he returned home smaller than my eight year old aunt, even after months of recovery and recuperation before coming home.

© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014