Lufkin, Thomas

Description

Thomas Murray McDonnell Lufkin was born on December 29, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, his father, John McDonnell, was 36 and his mother, Marie, was 23. His father died at age 40 and is mother remarried his step father Elgood Lufkin.

In Rye along with his brother John, his family lived at Country Gardens and were members of the Church of the Resurrection. Thomas was a Rye High School Graduate, Class of 1945.

He enlisted on March 15, 1945 and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. According to Marine Corp Muster Rolls he served as a rifleman with 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.

In April 1945, elements of the 6th Marines were part of the diversion force at Okinawa but returned to Saipan without actually going ashore. Most of the time at Saipan was devoted to preparation for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan.

The 6th Marines were slated to land on Kyūshū in the fall of 1945. Fortuitously, that operation was not needed when Japan surrendered in August. The 6th Marines made an administrative landing in Japan for occupation duty in September 1945 and remained there for almost a year before returning stateside.

Leon Uris’s best-selling 1953 novel Battle Cry, which was also made into a film of the same name in 1955, is about the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines during the Second World War.

After 11 months overseas Thomas was honorably discharged on August 20, 1946.

After the war he would write a series of articles about his travels down south and in the Caribean. He would also continue his education graduating Yale in 1952

Thomas married Detroit Debutante Janey Briggs Fisher on June 11, 1953 in Lake Shoe, MI. The couple would move to Sheridan, WY and they would have one son and two daughters.

Later they would move again to Pacific Palisades, CA. Thomas worked as a television and radio executive for the ABC Network and later for Ted Bates & Co.

Thomas Murray McDonnell Lufkin died on October 13, 2003, in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 76.