ABRAMS, OTIS McKINLEY (MACK), (1894-1980) was born in Gillises Mills, Hardin Co., Tennessee, the son of George Dougal Abrams and Hettie Falls Abrams. He attended school there and on finishing high school taught briefly. At the onset of World War I, on 12 Nov 1917, he enlisted in the army at Waynesboro , TN and was sent to Camp Gordon, GA for training. He was assigned to Company “A”, 1st Battalion, 307th Engineer Regiment of the 82nd Army Division. The Regiment was sent to France on 19 May 1918. As far as I know, Mack was not involved in combat, but was in the area where the Germans were shelling in the Toul Sector from 25 June to 10 Aug. 1918, Marbache Sector from 17 Aug. to 11 Sept. 1918 , St. Mihiel Operation Sept. 12-16 and the Meuse Argonne Offensive from 26 Sept. to 3 Oct. 1918. Company “A” spent most of the time repairing roads, building bridges, concrete pill boxes and shelters and digging foxholes and trenches. On 10 October 1918 the company took over a captured German railroad north of Varennes and operated it in supply service, delivering rations, forage and artillery ammunition to Apremont, Chehery and Cornay for a period of about 2 weeks. Mack came down with malaria while in France and spent time in a French hospital in the village of Bar-le-duc near the town of Nancy. The French doctors cured the malaria and he never had a recurrance. On 15 April 1919 the regiment left France and returned home. Mack was discharged on 21 May 1919 and returned to Waynesboro, TN where his parents lived.
In the fall of 1919 Mack went West – first to the wheat harvest in Kansas and then to Oklahoma. In Shawnee, Oklahoma he got a job with the Santa Fe Railroad as a locomotive fireman on the local switch engine. In 1927 he went back to Tennessee on vacation and while visiting relatives in Lawrenceburg met Lerlie Lee Powell, daughter of Jacob Marion Powell and Nancy Bassham. When Mack returned to Oklahoma, he and Lerlie corresponded by mail for a period of 2 months writing almost daily letters. In April 1927 he went back to Lawrenceburg and proposed marriage. She accepted and they were married 11 April 1927 and spent their honeymoon on the trip back to Oklahoma in Mack’s Model T Ford.
Their first child, Mary Carolyn, was born in 1928 followed by Herbert Victor in 1930. Mack and family moved to Cushing, Oklahoma sometime between 1930 and 1935 when Mack got bumped from his job in Shawnee. A second daughter, Anita Jean, arrived in 1935. Shortly thereafter the family moved back to Shawnee where they stayed until 1939. Mack had been promoted to Engineer and was low man in seniority in that position so he got bumped again. This time the family moved to Purcell, Oklahoma in 1939. Purcell was not as large as Shawnee and at first they hated it, but over the years they grew to love the little town and the many friends that they made there. In 1941 a second son, Donald Mack, arrived followed by Gary Wayne in 1943. Mack worked seven days a week to support the family and put all three sons through college.
Mack retired in 1965 after 44 years of service with the Santa Fe Railroad. He enjoyed his retirement years and stayed active well into his 80’s. He died on 5 August 1980 and was buried at the Purcell Hillside Cemetery with full military honors.
Submitted by Herb Abrams