Gold Stars and Purple Hearts

A coal miner, Don, drafted to fight with the elite Rainbow Division in WWI under General Douglas MacArthur; a pregnant wife with a toddler whose relationship with her mother-in-law is constantly strained; a mother whose love for her son had her leave her Appalachian Mountain home and travel to France on the Gold Star Mother's Pilgrimage in order to take the mountains to her son and bring her son back to the mountains; and Don's son who fights in WWII with the elite Devil's Brigade, the first Special Forces Unit in the U.S. Army, are remarkable because these events really took place.

This six-act play is the story of two men and two women whose lives were intertwined through blood and war. Sarah Williams Dyson (1874-1957) grew up in the North Carolina mountains with her country doctor father.

Sarah's only son, Don, married Vennie Lee Shull in 1914 and moved to Dante, Virginia, to work in the coal mines. Don's draft into WWI in 1917 came at a time when married men were not subject to the draft.

In 1923, Vennie remarried. After Vennie's divorce, Sarah, 12 years after her son's death, was invited to view Don's "tomb-rock" in France with other mothers and widows.

In 1942, Sarah and Vennie had to watch Don's son, Claude, volunteer to fight in WWII even though he was exempt from fighting since he was the only son of a casualty from WWI. Remembering his dad's only written message to him: "Don't never be a solder my boy," Claude returned home severely wounded. Don and Claude both received purple hearts and other medals for their bravery.

This breed of historian forsakes the myths and yellow journalism and delves into the lives of the characters through primary sources of journals, military records, letters, family Bibles, and first-hand knowledge of neighbors, family, and friends of the characters in the play.