Robert Wylie Bowling
World War I
Robert Wylie Bowling was another of the original Osmond American Legion members. He was born at Chatham Hill in Smyth County, Virginia, on Sept. 9, 1895.
His parents, William J. and Lillie Bowling, had 13 children. Two of them, George Washington Bowling and Viola Bowling, died in infancy. Another of his brothers, Leonard, died at age 15 after having been an invalid for 11 years. At some point between 1900 and 1910, the family moved to the Osmond area. In 1917, Wylie, as he was known around here, signed his WWI registration card which showed him as a farm laborer for his father. Wylie was drafted on April 23, 1918, and he served in the U.S. Navy. I couldn't find out much about his service except that he attained the rank of F2.
What I did find, however, was a letter he wrote to his folks from the U.S. N. Rifle Range on May 19, 1918, in Annapolis, MD. In it, he said, “Yes, I joined the Navy. Well, I have been shooting. I made the sharp shooter score. All I got to shoot is the expert. This range is from 200 yards to 2,500
yards. After I make it I will be all through with the rifle firing. Well I have been in the kitchen this week washing dishes.”
Wylie was discharged Oct. 2, 1919, and returned to Osmond for a couple years, where he worked on the family farm. At the time of his brother, Leonard’s, death in 1922, it states that he was now living at Rushville, MO. However, his obituary states that he lived at Osmond until his marriage to Laura Thurman Webb, which was on Dec. 26, 1930. Their marriage record also says that he was from Osmond.
At the time, he was 34 years old and she was 17. She was living in Chatham Hill, VA, where his family was from. I’m assuming he met her when he went back to visit family members, but that’s just a guess.
A 1931 “local news” story reported that he, along with several others had visited some friends in Sioux City, and while there, Wylie purchased a Ford roadster.
At some point, Wylie and Thurman, as she was known, moved back to Virginia, where he farmed. They had two daughters, Wanda and Melba.
On Sept. 21, 1961, at the age of 66, Wylie died at the veterans’ hospital in Roanoke VA, of chronic Glomerulonephritis, which is defined as a rare immunemediated disease that damages the glomeruli, the kidney's tiny blood filters.
He is buried in Ridgedale Cemetery in Ridgedale, VA. Wylie’s parents and brother Leonard are buried in the Osmond city cemetery, along with later generations of the Bowling family.
The photo pictured is one I found on a family member’s Ancestry page.
