Correspondent photo / Sean Barron .... Cousins Tammy Wright Mason, left, and Rebecca Leasure Fife, relatives of the late World War I soldier Frank Elmer Wright, embrace next to his recently installed headstone in Lake Park Cemetery in Youngstown. His remains never were found.

YOUNGSTOWN — Rebecca Leasure Fife wasn’t going to quit until she went as far as she could on behalf of a great-uncle she never knew.

“He deserves a place for us to grieve his loss,” Leasure Fife, of Youngstown, said.

She and several other relatives gathered last week at Lake Park Cemetery off Midlothian Boulevard to honor and remember Fireman 1st Class Frank Elmer Wright, who served in the Navy as a gunner aboard the convoy ship the USS Sacramento, which had been patrolling European waters during World War I, before he was killed in an accident Jan. 24, 1919. Wright was 19.

The accident occurred aboard a steamboat that was traveling north on the Mississippi River near New Orleans when a boiler apparently exploded as Wright was returning home from Europe after three years of active service. Wright’s obituary listed the cause of death as drowning, though his remains have never been recovered.

In his honor, a white memorial headstone was placed in late May in the portion of the expansive cemetery where military personnel are buried. It is the newest headstone to be installed in that section, Leasure Fife noted.

Initially, Wright, who was born in Andover and was the oldest of three brothers, enlisted in the Marines in December 1914 as a musician apprentice but was discharged three months later “due to his inability to learn music,” Leasure Fife said. So on April 26, 1915, he joined the Navy, where he served several months at the Great Lakes Navy Training School near Cleveland.

ELIGIBLE FOR HEADSTONE

Wright served nearly four years on the USS Sacramento and rose to the ranking of Fireman 1st Class, added Leasure Fife, who is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Mahoning chapter. Through that organization, she learned that her great-uncle was eligible to receive a headstone, even if his body hadn’t been recovered.

As a boost to her extensive research, which began a couple of years ago with a few obituaries that provided inconsistent information, Leasure Fife reached out to Susan Krawchyk of the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission, from whom she received Wright’s casualty reports.

“Susan Krawchyk helped me get the proper documentation for the headstone. It was a two-year process,” she recalled.

Leasure Fife found some confusion, however, while trying to fulfill her quest for information on her great-uncle because one of the obituaries stated that if Wright’s body was recovered, it would be sent to Youngstown for interment, while another notice indicated that if found, the body would be sent to Greenville, Pa., near Andover, for that purpose, she explained.

As a result, and before knowing the fate of his remains, Leasure Fife searched cemeteries in Youngstown and Greenville for evidence of where her great-uncle might be — to no avail.

An online site revealed that Wright’s father and grandfather were buried in Greenville, yet no records could be found for the soldier, so Leasure Fife — who was unaware of a family plot in one of the Greenville burial sites — underwent a monthslong search for him in the Youngstown area before applying for his military records, which likely would tell of his fate, she explained.

Before meeting Krawchyk, Leasure Fife also searched for information in New Orleans and made and sent a series of additional calls and emails, she remembered.

Also adding time to her efforts was the COVID-19 pandemic, Leasure Fife continued.

LAKE PARK CEMETERY

A few more months passed, then she made a call and was instructed to fill out paperwork for Wright before Lake Park Cemetery informed Leasure Fife her great-uncle’s death certificate was needed before a headstone could be placed for him.

Krawchyk, however, wrote a letter informing Lake Park Cemetery that in these types of situations, the Navy issued casualty reports, not death certificates. In addition, Krawchyk found Wright’s name in a book containing the names of lost WWI soldiers.

“What an arduous process, let me tell you,” Leasure Fife said, adding that around Memorial Day, Wright’s memorial headstone was placed at no cost.

Leasure Fife also has kept and used a wide array of documents she received that pertain to her relative, including a photograph of a teenage Wright in his uniform during WWI as well as a medal commemorating his death, along with a Western Union telegram and a notice from the Navy’s commanding officer, both of which informed Wright’s mother, Anna Wright, of her son’s death.

The notice, dated Jan. 25, 1919, reads in part: “It is thought that he leaped overboard to escape what he thought would be a boiler explosion. Six or eight boats went to his assistance immediately, and life belts thrown to him. He remained afloat for several minutes and then disappeared before any of the boats could reach him.

“The death of your son has cast a gloom over the entire ship. He was very well liked by officers and men.”

Leasure Fife’s cousin, Tammy Wright Mason, praised Leasure Fife for her dogged research on behalf of Frank Wright.

“If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be standing here (next to the headstone),” Wright Mason said.

For Leasure Fife, the time-consuming work she did was for a simple, straightforward reason.

“Now we have somewhere to go. His name and memory will never be forgotten,” she said, adding: “We’re all parents here and can’t imagine such a loss.”