Oral history interview of Laleah S. Furniss

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Oral history interview of Laleah S. Furniss

Tozzer, Newell Bryant

Furniss, Laleah S., 1925

2004-11-17

In this interview, Laleah Furniss describes her late husband's career in the U.S. Army during World War II. After college he was sent for training in Chicago. During the war, she worked in the "Bedpan Division" at a local hospital to free up nurses for more critical tasks.

Laleah Furniss recalls her husband's career as an Army officer in Africa and Italy during World War II.

MRS. JAMES PINE (LALEAH) FURNISS VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER Interview Date: November 17, 2004 Interviewer: Newell Tozzer Transcribed by: Stephanie McKinnell NEWELL TOZZER: This is Wednesday afternoon, the 17th of November, 2004. My name is Newell Bryan Tozzer, and I am going to interview Mrs. James Pine Furniss, Laleah Furniss, at the Atlanta Historical Society in Atlanta, Georgia, about her husband's military career in World War II. Mr. Furniss died in '83, 1983. He was a beloved Atlantan. Laleah Furniss and I have been friends forever, and our families. He was a distinguished Atlanta person, and I knew and liked Jim so much, and it's a treat to be able to do this, to honor him this way. He came to Atlanta to live after World War II, right, Laleah? LALEAH FURNISS: Yes. NT: And that was when you all met. LF: That's right. NT: You were married in '48? LF: Correct. NT: Alright. Tell us, we'll get you to read some of his wonderful book. Jim's brother Todd Furniss who lives in Arizona now has compiled a magnificent record of Jim's military career from his military records and has put it in a book. Laleah, you can read some of it if you choose. But what do you know about, just a general synopsis of what he did? He was in the army. LF: Well, let's see. He graduated from Yale in '42 maybe in the winter, or the end of '41. I don't know. But he knew that very soon, and soon indeed it was, that he would be gone. So he came to Atlanta briefly at the Atlanta Constitution and then went into the army. I don't know exactly what he did, but he went to a counterintelligence school that was in Chicago, I know that. He was with, then he went to North Africa as far as I know. I've had this book in a closet since 1948, and it was only at the insistence of my son last year that I even opened it and saw all these loose papers and stuff I didn't know anything about. So I shipped it all out to his wonderful brother who is an academician, and he put it in order, a huge labor, and now I have it, and I still haven't read through it. So there's just… a few little highlights I've seen. I know that he started off in North Africa. And I think it was in North Africa that he may have gotten the first Silver Star, I don't know. He spoke often of, he went up the boot of Italy, and there was some pretty severe fighting there though he was not a, he was always in counterintelligence but he was often under heavy fire. So he spoke often of Lucca because once we went back on a trip to Italy, he had stayed in Lucca six months, and he loved it. We had our daughter with us. He was driving, and we were going to see Lucca, only he couldn't find it. And ultimately when we got there, there was a great church spire, and I said, well, that must have been there. Anyway we found it. That's neither here nor there. I will read this because, nobody wants that. NT: Well, it's wonderful to have it all organized, beautifully done like that. I expect that Frances Westbrook at the History Center will probably borrow it and copy it [and give it] back to you. LF: Well, I hope so. Now I'll just read some of these because this is really my first, I haven't done any homework at all. NT: Well, it's wonderful to have you here. LF: This is very helter-skelter. I come upon this page, citation for Bronze Star medal, Oak Leaf Cluster. James P. Furniss, gives a number, captain. Well, he went in I guess as a private or a sergeant, maybe you're a sergeant when you get out of that school in Chicago, I don't know. But he was, had a feel for motion [?] I think. So the first decoration, I think, the Silver Star was while he was still a sergeant, but I can't find that. And this is the Bronze Star, 10th Counterintelligence Code Detachment, I think assigned to the 10th Mountain, in connections with military operations in Italy from 25th January to 12 May '45. That was later on. “Captain Furniss organized and brilliantly led in combat operations the 10th Counterintelligence Detachment and by his personal valor accounted for neutralization of many highly important security targets. His leadership inspired those about him to action that assisted materially in the war efforts of his organization and in the apprehension of peaceful government to Italy. By his devotion to duty and the zealous manner in which he discharged his many responsibilities, Captain Furniss reflected great credit upon himself and the armed forces of the United States.” Well, that's very nice. NT: Is that a picture of him receiving it? LF: I think this is getting the Silver Star from Mark Clark, whom he didn't much like. So I do remember that. NT: Hold it up so the camera can see that picture, though. LF: Well, Jim is better looking than that, and Mark Clark is probably uglier than that. NT: It's a wonderful picture. LF: He looks like a child, doesn't he? Well, he was. NT: The counterintelligence corps was spy work or…? LF: Yeah, yeah, I guess. Yes, I suppose it was spies. They certainly dealt with spies as well. I don't, I don't know. Well, I'm looking for the nice one, and I'm going to find it. Can we short circuit this camera for a second and I'll… If I could just, I don't want to waste time looking for what I'm looking for. I can't find what I really want to read, this is pitiful. Well, if I could just, I found it once you know. [looking for documents] NT: He started off in North Africa? LF: Yes, I mean as far as leaving the country, that's where he went. And I think they were in Casablanca for some time. He spoke of being in a sheep factory or some awful place where they were billeted. Then I guess they went up, Salerno. NT: That was Italy. LF: And all kind of places we knew about. So embarrassing. NT: Don't worry. [looking for documents]. LF: Ah, this is the one I wanted to read, the Silver Star. OK, this seems to be the award of the Silver Star, medal for gallantry in action. To Staff Sergeant Furniss, and then it gives the medal number. So that was pretty early on, the 30th of December '42. NT: That's very early. LF: Yeah. It says “For gallantry in action, Staff Sergeant James P. Furniss, numbers, CIC Detachment Western Task Force, on the morning of November 8, 1942, at Fedala, French Morocco.” NT: It is North Africa. LF: [reads] “Although Sergeant Furniss had reached shore and had been ordered to seek shelter from enemy fire, he voluntarily returned into the water, thus exposing himself to enemy fire and at great risk to his own life”… NT: Read slow, please. LF: Oh. NT: Exposing himself… LF: “He voluntarily returned to the water, thus exposing himself to enemy fire, and at great risk to his own life, aided in rescuing Ensign E.P. Hall and Private Claude Dye, Cannon Company, 7th Infantry, 3rd Division. After these men had been rescued, Sergeant Furniss again risked his life by standing in water shoulder deep among floating debris and crashing boats and assisted in securing equipment which was in danger of being lost in the heavy surf.” Well, OK, that was pretty daring. NT: That's _. LF: And then, oh dear, dear. I wish I could think of… I have all of these things that I haven't studied because he didn't discuss them much. NT: He never really talked about the war much. LF: Not much. But he just adored the country of Italy, and we had lovely trips there. Actually as a boy, he had not… so his love was formed during the war. And after, as he _ wound up maybe, in Austria as head of a hunk of CIC things. But his love of it was formed when he was in the mud slogging department of Italy going up the boot. NT: He loved Italy. LF: He did. He spoke fluent Italian and French. NT: He was good at languages. Do you think he learned to speak Italian before the war? LF: No, I don't think so. I think he just had an ear for it. Because he just had a good ear for language. We could be in restaurants in New York and he could pass for a native of either of those countries, he really had an ear. Which was a good thing because I speak very broken United States myself. NT: I bet that's one reason they wanted him in the counterintelligence, because of his language ability. LF: Probably. NT: Sure that was… LF: Well anyway… NT: He was in Chicago for that counterintelligence training, went to North Africa, then went through the North African campaign. You said he went to Casablanca. LF: I think that's where they landed probably. And I don't know where this Fadala is or wherever that citation was. But it must be some little town there, I've been to Morocco, and I don't remember such a town. It may have been the place of a skirmish, I don't know, and very near a port where they embarked. Then I suppose they must have gone, well, I know he was in Salerno. NT: That was a huge battle. LF: He was in that. This is the most helter-skelter thing, not having a career in the _ you understand. So I think I've about had it. I've told you more than I know about this. NT: Well, one thing though, as we came down through the World War II exhibit and they had the uniform in it, you saw a nurse's aide uniform and you said you were a nurse's aide during the war. LF: Oh, I was a bedpan queen. I and everybody I know. NT: Where did you work? LF: Crawford Long I think it was, in the Jesse Parker Williams Pavilion. NT: Used to be there. LF: That's right. I don't know that, well, I hope in the fact that all of this huge bedpan division that we were all in did release a nurse or two to do something. We didn't do much. I mean, everybody my age did it. NT: That was the point, to release nurses. LF: Oh, absolutely, yes. That was the point. I mean… NT: Red Cross nurse's aide. LF: That's right. We all did what everybody did, bandages and knitting ill-fitting garments, horrible snake-like scarves. Anyway… NT: So Jim mustered, out as they say, after the war. LF: After the war. And his father had been quite a leading doctor in New York City, I think his office was about 56th and Park, or somewhere. Some people years ago remember him when we lived there. Anyway, during the war, his father, Dr. Furniss, died and his mother became a permanent invalid. The residence, which was in Manhattan, was sold, and so he didn't have any place to come home to. So he came back to Atlanta, fortunately. NT: Married you, fortunately. LF: That's when we married. So that was just very good as far as I'm concerned. And he became a far better citizen of Atlanta than I ever was and a good bit better than my three… Oh, I shouldn't say because I adored my father, but he [devoted] himself much more than many native Atlantans, and that's often true of transplants, you love the area. NT: That is true. LF: Because he was, oh, he was chairman of the board of sponsors at the High Museum for two or three terms, and then I've forgotten, he did a whole bunch of stuff. Because I know Celestine Sibley [Atlanta Constitution columnist] wrote when he died, she said he served on so many committees, well, I didn't even know he was on. He loved Atlanta, so he was a good citizen. NT: Yes, he was, I remember that. We miss him. LF: Yeah. Well, we miss a lot, like your father, a whole lot of people. We're lucky in a way to be our age because we have such memories that are perfectly wonderful. As we go to our next appointment, we'll take those memories with us, and that'll be that. NT: Thank you, Laleah.

Silver Star

Bronze Star Medal (U.S.)

World War, 1939-1945--Medical care

Furniss, Laleah, 1925

Furniss, James Pine, 1920-1983

Furniss, Warren Todd, 1921-2006

Clark, Mark W. (Mark Wayne), 1896-1984

Yale University

Atlanta Constitution (Firm)

United States. Army. Counterintelligence School

Crawford Long Hospital (Atlanta, Ga.)

American Red Cross

United States. Army. Mountain Division, 10th

Digital Library of Georgia

moving image

http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/168

11/17/04

Digital Library of Georgia

Silver Star

Bronze Star Medal (U.S.)

World War, 1939-1945--Medical care

Furniss, Laleah, 1925

Furniss, James Pine, 1920-1983

Furniss, Warren Todd, 1921-2006

Clark, Mark W. (Mark Wayne), 1896-1984

Yale University

Atlanta Constitution (Firm)

United States. Army. Counterintelligence School

Crawford Long Hospital (Atlanta, Ga.)

American Red Cross

United States. Army. Mountain Division, 10th