Charlie Pinson, USN last WWI Veteran here, 1995.
Charles Miller Pinson was born December 28, 1896 in Anthony’s Mille, Missouri. He was the son of Frances M. Swan and Joseph Lee Pinson. His family moved to Idaho when he was 9 and he left home with his brother at age 13.
Charles served in the U.S. Navy in World War I aboard the USS Chebaulip that carried highly explosive ammunition past the German U-boats to France. After the war he lived in Anacortes and worked at Anacortes Lumber and Box Mill and EK Woods Mille. He briefly moved to Medford, Oregon in 1936 to operate the Mickey Mouse Restaurant, but returned the following year. After his return, he spent 20 years with Metropolitan Insurance Co. in Anacortes before he retired in the late 1950s.
Mr. Pinson was a member of the Anacortes Christian Church (since 1920) and was an active teacher, elder and Sunday School superintendent. He was also a member of the Anacortes VFW Post and the Anacortes Kiwanis Club.
On a visit to his mother, in 1919, he met his first wife Manilda M. Marrs, and they were married the following year. The couple had one child, Carl Raymond Pinson, in 1922. They were married until Manilda’s death in 1966. Charles remarried in 1969, to Valma Marrs and they were married until her death in 1978. He married his third wife, Cora Jo Elder, in 1984 and they were married until her death in 1990.
Charles passed away on May 18, 1995 in Anacortes, Washington and is interred at Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes, Washington.
