Carl Shepherd Dalbey (junior) was born 22 October 1922, son of
Carl S Dalbey (senior) and
Henrietta Clarkson Boyd.
During WW II he
served in the Merchant Marines as a radio operator.
During his sixteen months of service he met
with incredible hardship.
In October of
1942 his mother had the opportunity to send him birthday greetings via the Fred
Waring radio broadcast from New York City.
Five months later, 29 March 1943, Carl Dalbey was killed in action when
his ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic.
The article below appeared in The Oklahoman
(Oklahoma City), 18 October 1942.
The
format has been slightly edited.
Voice of City Woman
Going Over Radio to Her Son at Sea
Without a doubt, Mrs
Carl Dalbey sr, 900 Northwest Forty-second street, was the busiest woman in
Oklahoma City Saturday, and one of the happiest in the world. She was preparing
her wardrobe for an expense paid trip to New York. That's a good enough deal on its own to make
any woman happy. But, Thursday night, she is going to appear on a
coast-to-coast hookup and talk to her son, Carl Dalbey jr, who will be on the
high seas as a member of Uncle Sam's merchant marines. Thursday will be his
twenty-first birthday anniversary, and she hopes to goodness that he's
listening. The broadcast by Fred Waring
and his orchestra will be dedicated to Mrs Dalbey's son.
The whole thing has
happened so fast that it has taken her breath away. Carl was home to recuperate after he spent 32
days in an open lifeboat after his ship was torpedoed in the Caribbean. It took
seven weeks for him to regain his strength.
During the summer nights he and his mother and father frequently
listened to the Waring broadcasts. It
became one of their favorites.
Several weeks ago Carl
went back to the east coast to get a job on a boat and head for the open
seas. Mrs Dalbey heard Waring's
orchestra play his new March of the Merchant Marine. She wrote him a letter,
asking him to play that song for her son Thursday, on his twenty-first
birthday, and figured she would hear no more about it. One day she got a
letter, saying that Waring would change his program to include it, and would
send a recording of the program to her son.
The same day Gayle Grubb, manager of radio station WKY, wanted to know
if she would like to go to New York to appear on the Waring broadcast, expenses
paid. With Grubb handling arrangements for Waring, the trip was arranged. She will leave at 1:10pm Tuesday on the Santa
Fe. Mrs Dalbey is getting an additional kick out of the situation. Her son knows the Thursday program will be
dedicated to him and he's sure to be listening if he possibly can. What he doesn't know is that his mother will
be on the broadcast.
The boy, graduate of
Central highschool here and the Oklahoma A and M college, was a radio announcer
before he joined the merchant marine.
His ship was torpedoed on his first foreign trip. He was one of a group
which landed on an uninhabited Caribbean island and faced the prospect of dying
of thirst. However, he and others noticed some wild jackasses on the island,
and tracked them to their watering hole.
Later they were rescued and brought back to the United States.
Mrs Dalbey's husband
is not going to New York. "No, he isn't going, poor man, but he had a trip
to California not long ago." Father
Dalbey will have his car glued to the radio Thursday. The program will be broadcast by WKY at 6pm.
