SC teacher finds trunks full of WWII artifacts
by: Heather Olinger
Posted: Feb 7, 2019 / 05:28 PM EST / Updated: Feb 7, 2019 / 05:28 PM EST
A Greenville woman says she discovered trunks full of World War 2 artifacts while renovating her home.
So, the fifth grade teacher and self-proclaimed history buff decided to set up a museum at her school.
"This is where the story begins…" says Sarah Murrell. She moved into her husband's childhood home and discovered the buried treasure hidden in the the walls.
Trunks full of World War 2 artifacts from the father-in-law she never met.
Sarah Murrell, Teacher – "I just felt very fortunate that I was the one that found it because I am such a historian and I just felt like it was meant for me to find it."
And now she is fortunate enough to share the decades' old items with her students. She's setting up a museum inside her classroom, telling the story of a young man named Johnnie Murrell who joined the Marines at 20 years old.
Murrell says "We have evidence that he was in the Philippines, Hawaii, Okinawa, Nagasaki." That evidence in the form of letters from 1941 to 1946.
Murrell learned that her father-in-law was very meticulous, organizing everything and sending back keepsakes to the U.S. It all makes for a very interesting history lesson.
While time has worn out the items, they still give students a fresh perspective.
"I can talk all I want about what it was like when the bomb dropped," Murrell commented, "but seeing the newspaper article or the pictures of it is completely different."
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