Ernest Lee Frye was bron in Osceola, Iowa to Albert Ellihugh Frye and Anna Eliza Sharp Frye. The family of seven children moved west from Iowa in 1899 to Oregon, where Ernest's father found a job at a gold mine near Grants Pass. As a teenager, Ernest found a job in the lumber mills and was a member of the mill's baseball team. Ernest, along with his brothers Alonzo (Lon) and Jay, enlisted in the Army in 1917. Ernest was stationed at Kelly Field near San Antonio, Texas as part of the 75th Aero Squadron, which later became the 487th, and became part of the squadron's baseball team. The squadron was station in France during World War I, where planes were shipped in to be assembled, armed, tested, and flown out to other airfields. Frye left the service in June of 1919, he returned to Oregon and returned to working in the lumber mills but later found a job as a bookkeeper for Keizer Hospital.
In 1936 he married Alice V. Dick, a registered nurse, and adopted two children, a baby girl named Jane in 1937 and a baby boy named John in 1942. After World War I, Ernest was active in the community and served on the school baord and was elected mayor of North Bend, Oregon to two terms. He died in 1974 and was burried with his wife at Suset View Cemetery in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Acc. 2013.305 was received by Special Collections from the donor via U.S.P.S. on 12/2/2013.
Accessioned and minimally described by Steven Bookman, University Archives Specialist, in December 2013.
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
Collection is open to all researchers.
Ernest L. Frye Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
June A. Dowling Papers (Mss. Acc. 2009.163).
Information about related materials is available at http://guides.swem.wm.edu/armedconflicts
This collection is arranged chronologically by item type.
This collection contains letters, photographs, and other material documenting Ernest L. Frye's time in the 487th Aero Squadron during World War I. Included in the papers are letters from Frye to his brother and sister describing his fellow officers, reminiscing about friends back home in Oregon, his experience on the Aero squadron baseball team, and other matters. Photographs of Frye along with his fellow officers in the 487th and playing baseball, as well as programs for dances, leave passes, train passes, documents of promotion, poems, a government letter honoring the memory of Frye, and newspaper clippings regarding Frye playing baseball are also included.