Ken Knudson (Aunt Julia's grandson) pictures

L  is Ken Knudson on right with friend, Top R is Ken with wife Lydia and baby@ graduation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR , Bottom R is Ken and Lydia Bowman @ their wedding

About a year ago, Greg Bowman was doing some research on the Knudson line and sent me a message through Ancestry. From that message I have connected with Julie Knudson a great granddaughter of Julia Nelson Knudson (see previous post) through her son,William Knudson.(following me?!!) I have also included some of the stories that Julie and her brother Steve have shared about their Grandpa Will and their father, Ken Knudson. Sorry that the type font's are different~ oh well, the stories are great! Thanks Knudson's!
Memory 1 about Will Knudson~~"Just a few notes below about Dad when he was a marine from me and my oldest brother Steve.  Steve told me last night that Grandpa Knudson (Julia's son) was a very quiet guy and that Steve had to mine him for information.  Steve was the one who found out about Grandpa traveling from Idaho to Enterprise Oregon to drive a herd of horses back to Idaho to sell to the US Calvary.  And, Steve had asked Grandpa Will, when he told us the Lofoten Island fisherman's trials during the storm, if Grandpa knew the guy he was telling us about and Grandpa said yes, he knew him.( Of course we know this was Grandpa Anders!)  And, we never, ever heard about Grandpa going to Idaho on the Oregon Trail when he was a little kid.  Greg Bowman told me about that.  Just the same, one of my Dad's sisters told me that she overheard Grandpa telling my Dad when he was leaving in the marines, in a private conversation between the two of them, to 'be a man' and that was about the extent of the conversation.  I just remember Grandpa (Will), dolling out pennies to me and my brothers and sisters from a little coin purse he had in his pocket, the suspenders he always wore, the way he tipped his hat on his head when he wore it, him telling us kids the raspberries were ripe and we should go out and pick some for ourselves, and his blue eyes and sitting at his feet when he would tell us stories."
Memory 2 This is regarding Ken Knudson, Will's son~"Dad was a marine in WWII--actually all marines were sent to China (they are called China marines) ready to invade Japan but he was saved from that by the dropping of the bomb.  In China, he and another guy in his outfit went out at night to look for Japanese infiltrators in the Chinese villages.  He was called 'Big Brother' and the guy he went with was called 'Little Brother'.  My brother Dave learned about this when he went to a marine reunion of Dad's after Dad had passed away.
 "I just remember the story he told about the Chinese guy who would come and do chores for them.  At the end of his work, Dad and his buddies would load him up with gifts and take him to where they could let him out of the American compound.  Dad said he would usually be stripped of everything they gave him by the time he crossed the street and Dad and his buddies would yell at him to 'Run'!"
Memory 3 This is from Steve Knudson regarding his Dad, Ken Knudson "I would like to possibly correct a comment here. The place they would go out looking for Japanese was on Kume Shima or Kume Jima where he was for a while. It was part of the Okinawa islands and there were many Japanese soldiers hiding out with the local Okinawans who are and were Japanese citizens or hiding in the jungle.. On a patrol I don't think he was on they did lose one marine to a slit throat. In China the threat was Nationalist Chinese soldiers who he said were nothing better than bandits. At night they could hear shooting and machine guns as the Communists and Nationalists were shooting at each other. At one time the Communist general told them to leave or they would be attacked. They were prepared for battle but nothing happened. There were no Japanese hanging around in China as I remember the story."

Ken Knudson @ age 62