To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Texas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Texas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 1/7/20 • Approved: 1/8/20 • Last Updated: 4/27/20 • R253299-G253297-S3
Doris
July 22, 1921 - May 20, 1965
Orvil
CORPORAL Coast Guary Artillery
World War II
January 26, 1915 - April 9, 1990
World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946
Area Served: Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands
Detaining Country: Japan
Camp: Hoten POW Camp (Mukden) Manchuria 42-123
Status: Returned to Military Control, Liberated or Repatriated
Father: John Wisner Welch (Twin)
Mother: Lula "Belle" Hale
When Doris Juanita Edwards was born on July 22, 1921, in Vernon, Texas, her father, Dewitt, was 21, and her mother, Ruby, was 19. She married Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" in 1938 in Texas. They had one child during their marriage. She died on May 20, 1965, in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the age of 43, and was buried in her hometown.
Cause of death;
Chronic Nephrosis
---------------------
Military
Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" served in the military on July 22, 1939, in Kansas when he was 24 years old.
U.S. Army, per obit- trained at Ft Riley, Kansas, he was captured during WWII, Orvil was a prisoner of war from May 6, 1942 to Aug 1945, release date 16 May 1946, see Gallery for full story on condition of Hoten POW Camp, Mukden, Manchuria.
--------------------
When Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" was born on January 26, 1915, in Annona, Texas, his father, John, was 33 and his mother, Lula, was 30. He was married three times and had one child. He died on April 9, 1990, in Clarksville, Texas, at the age of 75, and was buried in Vernon, Texas.
Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" married Gladys Olean Welch on February 3, 1966, when he was 51 years old.
Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" and Gladys Olean Welch were divorced on May 6, 1968, in Wilbarger, Texas, after 2 years of marriage. He was 53 years old.
Orvil Welch "Prisoner of War" married Juanita Elizabeth Wingrove in Potter, Texas, on May 7, 1968, when he was 53 years old.
She married Orvil after her 1st husband MC died
Young Orvil Welch (24) was prisoner of WWII from May 6, 1942 to Aug 1945. He served in U.S. Army, Corporal, Coast Artillery Corps, Coast Artillery Corps Army mine laying service in Southwest Pacific Philippine Islands.
Before surrendering to the Japanese, the U.S. and Filipino soldiers were in poor health enduring starvation, disease and exhaustion in addition to the fighting. Under General Douglas MacArthur, they retreated to the Bataan peninsula, where they resisted the Japanese for months. The raids in December 22, 1941 left the soldiers without air power & supplies when the Japanese landed 43,000 troops on the main island of Luzon, Philippines.
April 9, 1942, Major General Edward King surrendered all 76,000 American and Filipino troops under his command to the Japanese. General MacArthur had by this time evacuated to Australia with his family. This earned him the nickname, "dugout Doug", by his men. They felt he should have refused orders to leave and fought to the end with his men.
"Bataan Death March", tens of thousands of American & Filipino soldiers were forced on a grueling 65-mile walk across the Philippine island of Luzon against the blazing sun. They also faced brutality and beatings from their Japanese captors. Thousands of men died on the march and thousands more would die later in POW camps.
When they reached the rail station at San Fernando, they were crammed a hundred at a time into boxcars meant for 40. Additional men died on this train from suffocation, exhaustion, and dehydration.
Things did not improve for the tens of thousands of men who survived at the POW camps. Conditions in the camps were horrific. After months of watching their comrades die at a rate of 25 per day. In addition to the horrible living conditions, beatings, and various types of torture, it finally got so bad that the Japanese needed no excuse whatsoever to beat a man.
One of the first things the Japanese captors forced POW's to do was to fill out a questionnaire stating their skills and training. The Japanese company, Mitsubishi, requested 1,500 POW workers for their Manchurian Factory at Mukden, Manchuria.
On August 16, 1945, a six-man American OSS (Office of Strategic Services) team parachuted into Mukden to liberate the camp. Soviet troops entered Mukden a few days later and helped the evacuation of POW's.
For nearly half a century, the history of the Mukden POW camp was not well known to the world, even to the citizens of Mukden (now called Shenyang). In recent years, efforts by several researchers and activists have greatly contributed to rediscovering the camp site, preserving it, and awakening people's interest in what took place at this little known Japanese POW camp.
The governments of Shenyang and Liaoning Province, with the support from the Chinese central government, have been undertaking a $7 million project to turn the former camp into a historical museum.
Orvil Welch, survived this atrocious ordeal in the Philippines and the harsh conditions at Hoten POW camp in Mukden, Manchuria after 3 years and two months as a captive in forced labor, he returned home to his beloved wife and daughter.
Submitted by: Robert & Jeanne McIntyre, 2018
Source: US-Japan Dialogue on POWs and Googled Hoten POW Camp, Mukden, Manchuria
Photo;
Annette Shaw
ashaw444@swbell.net
Contributed on 1/7/20 by hawkinsdonna48
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 253299