WELDON DAVIS CAUTHAN
Posted Friday, March 1, 2013 07:38 AM

REMEMBERING
WELDON DAVIS CAUTHAN

 

By Joe C. Fling

Weldon Davis Cauthan was descended from a very old Eagle Lake family. Davis, as he was known was born February 19, 1917. Cauthan was named for his grandfather Weldon E. Davis; and is also descended from George Montgomery. The Montgomery family were major landowners of property in the Matthews area prior to and after the Civil War.

Davis grew up in Trinity, Texas but had close ties to the Eagle Lake community and is memorialized in the Masonic Cemetery. Davis spent much time in Eagle Lake, with his grandmother Mary Davis, and married an Eagle Lake girl, Gloria Tilson. Cauthan’s mother Christine died in 1940. Cauthan entered the navy and attained the rank of Lieutenant. He served in the Pacific theatre of war as a pilot, probably of a carrier based plane.

Sixty years ago, in the Eagle Lake Headlight of July 28, 1944, he was reported missing. It was some time before the sad news was confirmed that he was killed in action. It was later learned that his plane had been shot down in action on July 17, 1944. This chain of events would indicate that Cauthan was shot down in action at sea, and his body lost. This would necessitate the passage of some time before the Navy would change his status from Missing to Killed in Action.

In July, 1944 the fighting that had engaged the attention of the U.S. Navy and its carrier based air crews would have been the landings in the Marianas: Saipan (June 15) Guam (July 21) and Tinian (July 24), as well as the fighting leading up to the invasion of the Philippines. If it can be presumed that Cauthan piloted a carrier based aircraft, such as the Douglas Dauntless and Grumman Avenger bombers or the Grumman Wildcat and Hellcat fighters, it would be likely that Cauthan was lost in some of that fighting. If this is so, then Cauthan also likely took part in some of the fiercest carrier fighting of the Pacific war, including what came to be known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” June 19 and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 20-22.

Cauthan’s sacrifice in the line of duty is remembered by enumeration of his name on the Tablets of the Missing at the West Coast Memorial at Presidio, California. There is also a memorial stone in the Eagle Lake Masonic Cemetery. The stone is surrounded by the graves of Cauthan’s close relatives including his mother Christine Cauthan; and aunts Mrs. A.F. (Mildred) Harbert, Myra Weldon Davis Shacklett, and Mary Ethel Davis Stubenvel, as well as his grandmother Mary Davis. Davis Cauthan was survived by his wife, Gloria; a brother, Hamilton Cauthan, grandmother, and aunts. His closest descendants living in Colorado County today include Davis family cousins descended from Fulton and Herbert Dromgoole.

I am reminded at this time of the fact that the memory of these men who died in the Second World War are receding into the distant past. It has been sixty years. The deaths in the last two weeks of Mrs. Lauralynne Shirley Powers and Mr. E.H. “Sonny” Breithaupt greatly reinforce this thought. Each of these had brothers (James Gerald Shirley and Reinhardt Breithaupt) who died in the war. With the passing of family and friends our community need not let the memory of those who gave their lives in battle be lost with them.