Re: Looking for St. Louis, MO Skinkers info
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In reply to:
Looking for St. Louis, MO Skinkers info
2/01/01
Amber,
I'm sure this is way too late for your paper but my curiosity was piqued by your posting.I have a distant cousin, a Miss Caroline French Rulon-Miller, who married a St. Louis native, Alexander Rives Skinker, on 11 Aug 1917 in St. Louis.Tragically, he was killed in France while in the US Army a little more than a year later.He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on the battlefield.I am including a copy of the citation that accompanied the medal.
I don't know who Skinker Blvd. is named for and would be interested to find out if it is Alexander R. Skinker.
*SKINKER, ALEXANDER R.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, 138th Infantry, 35th Division. Place and date: At Cheppy, France, 26 September 1918. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: St. Louis, Mo. G.O. No.: 13, W.D., 1919. Citation: Unwilling to sacrifice his men when his company was held up by terrific machinegun fire from iron pill boxes in the Hindenburg Line, Capt. Skinker personally led an automatic rifleman and a carrier in an attack on the machineguns. The carrier was killed instantly, but Capt. Skinker seized the ammunition and continued through an opening in the barbed wire, feeding the automatic rifle until he, too, was killed.
Dave Miller
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Re: Looking for St. Louis, MO Skinkers info
Judy Schwank 7/17/01