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<mask> (8 May 1886 – 24 February 1955) was a Polish librarian, writer, publicist and cultural activist. He was the director of the Provincial and Municipal Public Library of Bydgoszcz from 1920 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1952. Biography

Youth and First World War
<mask> was born on 8 May 1886, in Warsaw. His father, <mask> (1849-1929) was a Silesian lawyer and journalist and his mother Jadwiga née Kobylańska, the daughter of a Warsaw doctor. Stanisław  and Jadwiga had also two daughters, Janina and Helenas. <mask>, in his early years, was impressed by the strong patriotic feelings of his father and his travels, his social activities: he even attended a rally organized by Stanisław in Opole while
aged 7. <mask> attended a gymnasium in Warsaw.At that time, the social unrest in the Polish capital against russification in the education and the social life under Russian rule stirred strikes in schools, preventing <mask> from finishing his junior high school. He had to leave to join the prestigious Jesuit School in Chyrów (today's Khyriv, Ukraine) where in 1905, he passed his end of secondary school examination. In 1910, he started to work in the library of the National Ossoliński Institute in Lviv: he left the position only in 1920. Between 1911 and 1914, he studied at the Faculty of Humanities of Lviv University. During his stay in the Ukrainian capital, he was engaged in journalistic and literary works: among others, he was the editor of "Poradnika Teatrów i Chórów Włościańskich" and a collaborator of "Pamiętnik Literacki" (Literary Diary). <mask> was traveling in Switzerland when World War I broke out. He opted to stay in the country and took a job as a librarian in the Polish Museum in Rapperswil.In January 1917, he was able to move back to the Ossolineum of Lwów. There, under the supervision of professor Wilhelm Bruchnalski, <mask> wrote his thesis entitled "Wernyhora in Słowacki's poetry", for which he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Lviv. During the graduating ceremony, the poet Jan Kasprowicz himself handed out the Ph.D to <mask>. Until 1920, he worked at the Ossolineum in Lviv, at the time led by Wojciech Kętrzyński and Ludwik Bernacki. Life in Bydgoszcz

Head of the Municipal Library
In August 1920, aged 34, <mask> <mask> settled in Bydgoszcz, as a winner of a contest for the library direction launched by the local authorities. He lived downtown at 6 20 Stycznia 1920 Street, apartment 3. On 1 September, he sat at the position of director of the Municipal and People's Library.There, he took care of the comprehensive Polonization of the institution. Within a few years, he transformed the German book collection into a valuable Polish one. He expanded the manuscript department and recovered from German hands the remains of the Bernardine Library. <mask> received numerous donations and deposits for the library and educated many librarians. Among the donators there were writers,
scientists, artists, among others: painters Franciszek Teodor Ejsmond and Jerzy Mieczysław Rupniewski, Konstanty Laszczka, scholar Rudolf Mękicki, Feliks Nowowiejski, Stanisław Łempicki, Marian Turwid and Kornel Makuszyński. The director of the library even donated manuscripts he owned from authors like Józef Kallenbach, Aleksander Brückner or from his father's or uncle's works. He converted the institution into a significant research center.Noticeable donator includes Kazimierz Kierski, then president of the General Prosecutor's Office in Poznań, who handed over a collection of almost 2700 documents (privileges, diplomas, nomination letters, etc.) with 13 parchments and more than 500 letters and royal documents. Unfortunately, Kierski's collection was lost during WWII and German occupation. Another important contributor was Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki, who donated a dozen of books from Vladimir Lenin's Poronin collection, from the period when the soviet leader-to-be used to stay in the Polish Tatra (1913-1914). In 1945, the City Council handed it over back to the Soviet Union as a gift from the Polish People's Republic. From the 75,000 volumes (almost exclusively in German) in 1920, Bełza increased the collection of the library to more than 136 000 volumes
in 1939, and up to 231 000 volumes in 1952. In addition to the library director position, <mask> kept working on scientific and literary topics: he published studies in the field of library science, history of Polish literature and theater criticism.He was also the author of several works of fiction and translations of German and French books, from authors such as Franz Werfel, Bruno Traven or Henri-Robert. From 1935 to 1936, he started to collaborate regularly to the Polish Biographical Dictionary, preparing several biographies. Similarly, he wrote correspondence and columns for local and national press. Many of his literary work manuscripts were lost during the German occupation, notably a 600-page writing entitled "Ksawera Deibel" based on authentic letters from Adam Mickiewicz to Xawera (1818-1900), a Polish singer, Chopin's student and Mickiewicz's long-time lover. From 1934 to 1939, he fulfilled an additional duty as head of the Department of Education and Culture of the Municipal Board. Cultural activist

As an early lover of music and singing, Bełza regularly attended premieres at the City Theater. He also, thanks to his position, often joined music events.He often played piano during social gatherings and was active in the chamber music section from the Bydgoszcz Music Society, created in 1922 by Ludwik Regamey. He was a member of the Society board and eventually became its vice president. In the 1920s, <mask> performed a series of lectures related to French music and culture, which included Ludwik Regamey's musical performances. <mask> was active in other socio-cultural organizations:
 the Polish Intelligentsia Organization (from 1921), disseminating Polish literature and the History of Poland;
 the Society of the Lovers of the City of Bydgoszcz (), which he co-created in 1923. Bernard Śliwiński, then mayor of Bydgoszcz, was its first president till 1925;
 the Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz, as one of the initiators of the establishment;
 the Artistic and Cultural Council in Bydgoszczz () (1934-1939). With his hectic activity, he significantly contributed to the growth of Bydgoszcz as a cultural center in Pomorskie Voivodeship and in the country. In 1933, thanks to the efforts of Zygmunt Malewski, an employee of the Municipal Archives, <mask> <mask> launched the first issue of "Przegląd Bydgoski" (Bydgoszcz Review), a scientific journal devoted to the history of the city, to religious and secular art, and literature.World War II and final years
<mask> <mask> spent the war time outside of Bydgoszcz. He first stayed a few months in Briukhovychi near Lviv as a teacher, then he moved to Lviv, where he was running and organizing the library at the Children's Clinic. In 1944, when a bomb destroyed the house they lived in, <mask> and his family moved to Ciężkowice near Tarnów, staying there during the last months of the war. He returned to Bydgoszcz on 14 March 1945, and was once again entrusted with the management of the Municipal Library. In the post-war years, he combined other posts:
 head of the Municipal Department of Culture and Art (September 1945 - February 1949);
 literary director of the Municipal Theater (1946 - 1947);
 lecturer at the Bydgoszcz Drama School (1947). After 1946, under his leadership, a network of Public Libraries was being developed within the city. On 28 August 1945, the city authorities assigned Bełza to organize the jubilee celebration of the 600th anniversary of Bydgoszcz.His other activities in this period include:
 the set up of a Medical Library branch in the City library (December 1947), as a result of his experience in Lviv during the war;
 active membership of multiple Literary Societies (A. Mickiewicz association, Association of Polish Librarians, Polish Writers' Union);
 publishing in several periodicals between 1945 and 1949 ("Ilustrowany Kurier Polski", "Trybuna Pomorska", "Ziemia Pomorskie", "Tygodnik Warszawski"). The end of the 1940s marked the beginning of his parting from the new city authorities, for political reasons. Although <mask> joined the United People's Party and participated in the ideological training, he was no more conveniently considered by the ruling organs. As a consequence, in April 1951, he had to leave his apartment at 7 Asnyka street, which was soon put at the disposal of the Provincial Public Security Office. As a result, he moved to live in a flat at 33 Gdańska street. His fall was pushed down further as on 1 December 1952, he was removed from the position of Library director and deprived of the associated allowance. Finally, on 31 December of that year he was put to retirement.For some time, <mask> worked in the Municipal Library as an assistant, but he eventually left for good the institution on 31 August 1953. State authorities prevented him to resume any further professional activity, like at the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków or at the City Print House ("Państwowe Zakłady Wydawnictw Szkolnych" or PZWS). <mask> <mask> died on 24 February 1955 in Bydgoszcz. He was buried in Bydgoszcz Nowofarny Cemetery. After his death, not a single official obituary was released. Personal life and family
On 21 April 1917, <mask> married Karolina Ludwika née Winiarz; Jan Kasprowicz was one of his witnesses. Karolina originated from a family of distinguished booksellers and printers of Lviv.They had a daughter, Halina (1919–1992), who married Jan Harasymowicz, a Polish professor of technical sciences from the Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology in Kraków, and a son Stanisław Janusz (1921-1982), lawyer and court expert. Janusz' daughter, Anna Dzierżykraj-Lipowicz, has been instrumental to keep the memory of her grandfather alive, collecting and sharing family mementoes and other details of his life. <mask>'s father Stanisław was a lawyer, writer and an independence activist. He traveled across Europe, Asia and Africa. He published his impressions of his journeys in the form of small brochures which he gave to libraries, e.g. "Holandia" (1890), "W kraju tysiąca jezior" (In the country of a thousand lakes (1896), "Obrazy i obrazki z Indii" (Images and Pictures from India) (1912) or "Echa Szwajcarii" (The echoes of Switzerland) (1927). He often addressed topics related to Polish Silesia in his writings and social activities, especially at the time of the Upper Silesia plebiscite in 1921.Stanisław was a member of the Poznań Society for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences. He was at the initiative of the creation of the municipal library in Chorzów, Silesia, in 1922. <mask>'s uncle, Władysław <mask> (1847–1913), was also a writer, journalist and administrative secretary of the National Ossoliński Institute in Lviv. Like his brother Stanisław, he was a social activist and a correspondent member of the Poznań Society for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences. <mask>'s grandfather, Józef <mask> (1805-1888), was a Polish chemist, pioneer of the sugar industry in Poland. Decorations
 Golden Cross of Merit

Commemorations
<mask>'s son donated his father's diary to the University of Bydgoszcz. The book was bought by <mask>'s father in 1910.Inside, one can discover articles, watercolours, sketches, thoughts of the librarian, but also mementoes from famous scholars he met: lines from Teofil Lenartowicz, Aleksander Brückner or Stanisław Przybyszewski, a photo of William Morfill while in Oxford in 1909, a sketch by Konstanty Laszczka, fragments of music scores by Feliks Nowowiejski, Ludomir Różycki, words of appreciation from Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki, a sketch of a poem by Józef Weyssenhoff. On 24 February 1984, thanks to the efforts of his daughter Halina, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the wall at 33 Gdańska Street. The bronze work by Michał Kubiak recalls Witold's last living place in the city. Since 2002, the Provincial and Municipal Public Library has been renamed Witold Bełza in his honor. In 2017, the namesake of Witold Bełza has been assigned by plebiscite of Bydgoszcz inhabitants to one of the 18 new tramways purchased by the city. See also

 Bydgoszcz
 List of Polish people

References

Bibliography

Polish publicists
Polish activists
Polish writers
Polish librarians
Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland)
1886 births
1955 deaths
Collaborators of the Polish Biographical Dictionary
Burials in Nowofarny cemetery in Bydgoszcz

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<mask> (17 March 1917 – 8 October 1943) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. He is credited with 206 enemy aircraft shot down in over 500 combat missions. The majority of his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front, with 29 claims over the Western Front. Born in Meissen, <mask> grew up in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany as the only child of a single parent, <mask>. He was raised under challenging financial circumstances, and volunteered for military service in the Wehrmacht in 1936. Following flight training, he was posted to Jagdgeschwader 76 (JG 76—76th Fighter Wing) of the Luftwaffe and participated in the invasion of Poland and as a Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) in the Battle of France.His unit was reformed as II./Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54—54th Fighter Wing) in June 1940. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 22 October 1940 during the Battle of Britain. He then fought in the aerial battles of the Balkans Campaign and Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves after 62 aerial victories on 24 August 1941 and the Swords () to his Knight's Cross on 12 March 1942, his score now at 86 aerial victories. He claimed his 100th victory on 31 March 1942, the fourth fighter pilot to achieve this mark, and his 150th aerial victory on 14 January 1943. <mask> claimed four aircraft shot down on 17 March 1943 taking his total to 203 aerial victories. He thus surpassed Hermann Graf as the leading German fighter pilot at the time, and six months after Graf, became the second pilot to claim more than 200 victories.<mask> was promoted to Major (major) and given command as the Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG 1—1st Fighter Wing) on 1 April 1943, conducting Defense of the Reich operations against the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). He was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) on 1 October 1943 and was killed in action a week later on 8 October during an attack on Bremen. It is believed that he was shot down by the P-47 Thunderbolt pilot Robert S. Johnson. <mask> managed to bail out but his parachute failed to open. Childhood and education
Johannes "<mask>" <mask> was born on 17 March 1917 at 22:45 at Gustav-Graf-Straße 5 in Meissen, in the Kingdom of Saxony, part of the German Empire. His mother <mask> was not married. His father was Leopold Gushurst whom his mother had met while serving at the hospital at Meissen-Zaschendorf.Gushurst had studied medicine at the universities in Erlangen (1912–14) and Freiburg (1914–16) and served as battalion doctor with the heavy artillery on the Western and Eastern Fronts of World War I. He attained his doctorate in the field of radiology in April 1920 and opened his medical practice in Plauen. In the 1920s, his social status as a doctor did not allow him to disclose his relationship with the unmarried mother of his child. <mask>'s mother, who never married, was the eighth child of relatively poor parents. Her father made a living as a driver and as a laborer in the construction business. The financial situation was always tight, and taught everyone in the family discipline and to work hard to survive. To support the family, Alma worked as an accountant and clerk.<mask>'s father paid a monthly alimony of 35 Reichsmark (RM) until 1933. Initially he had to be reminded by his mother of his obligations. <mask> was baptized on 29 July 1917, taking the name Johannes Fritz, and was confirmed in 1931. In 1924, <mask> attended the 4. Volksschule (Pestalozzischule—4th elementary school) in Meissen. <mask> was a very good student. His mother understood that education was essential to <mask>'s future.She worked very hard to raise the funds to pay for higher education in order to send <mask> to a Gymnasium (secondary school). In 1927, she managed to have <mask> admitted to the Franziskaneum in Meissen, the Realgymnasium—a secondary school built on the mid-level Realschule to achieve the Abitur (university entry qualification)—in Meissen. Alma, desperate to secure her son's schooling, wrote to the city council of Meissen in 1932 asking if the school fees could be waived. <mask> participated in various sporting events organized by the Christlicher Verein Junger Männer (CVJM—the German equivalent of YMCA) such as hiking, bicycling, skiing, paddling and rowing. He also was a member of the Hitlerjugend (HJ—Hitler Youth) and received the HJ-Ehrenzeichen (Honor Badge). <mask> learned to fly glider aircraft in the Hitler Youth and received his A and B glider license, leading the local HJ-Fliegerschar (Flying Squad) in Meissen. Adolf Hitler officially re-established the Luftwaffe in March 1935.Following this event, <mask> then changed his mind and decided he did not want to become a journalist. He passed his physical examination to become a pilot, observer, aircraft mechanic and or radio operator on 6 September 1935 in Dresden. The financial situation of the <mask> family was always a cause for concern. When Alma's mother was paralyzed and required nursing care, the financial situation became severe. Alma's monthly income was 225 RM and the annual school fee of 180 RM was a big burden. She wrote to the city council multiple times asking for the fees to be waived. By early 1935, the family was behind on their payments which had accumulated to a debt of 390 RM by 31 March 1935.<mask>'s graduation from school was at risk as he was threatened with expulsion on financial grounds. <mask>'s decision to opt for military service in the Wehrmacht eased the financial tension. He was permitted to graduate, provided that his mother paid back the debt in instalments of 10 RM per month. Early career
Following his graduation from school, <mask> had to complete his compulsory six months in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD—Reich Labor Service). He began his RAD service on 2 January 1936 in Lager 5/150 (Camp 5/150) in Riesa. He was released early and started his military training as a Fahnenjunker (cadet) on 6 April 1936 at the 2nd Air Warfare School (Luftkriegsschule 2) at Gatow, on the south-western outskirts of Berlin. Among his classmates were Werner Baumbach, who became a bomber pilot, and Helmut Lent, a nightfighter pilot.<mask>, as a member of the 4. Schülerkompanie (4th Student Company), completed Lehrgang I (1st course) by 4 August 1936, Lehrgang II (2nd course) by 31 May 1937, and the final Lehrgang III (3rd course) by 31 August 1937. He received the Pilot's Badge after completing these courses. During this training period he was promoted to Fahnenjunker-Gefreiter (cadet-private) on 1 October 1936, Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier (cadet-corporal) on 1 December 1936, Fähnrich (ensign) on 1 April 1937 and Oberfähnrich (senior ensign) on 1 December 1937. <mask> was promoted to the officer rank of Leutnant (second lieutenant) on 24 February 1938, with the effective date was backdated to 1 January 1938. His commanding officer released him with the words, "I release you with great concern for your own career, but with even greater concern for the Air Force as a whole"—apparently <mask> had been aware that his promotion was at risk for his opposition to the monotony of the training system. Just prior to his promotion he had started looking for an alternative employment with the Maschinenfabrik Pekrun (machine factory Pekrun) in Coswig, which his dance partner, Margarete Strunz, had helped to arrange.<mask> was transferred to the I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader 253 (I./KG 253—1st group of the 253rd Bomber Wing) on 1 March 1938. This assignment did not suit <mask>, and on 1 May 1938 he managed to get himself transferred to the Jagdfliegerschule Werneuchen (fighter pilot school) in Werneuchen, then under the command of Oberst (Colonel) Theodor Osterkamp. The Anschluß, the 1938 occupation and annexation of Austria into the German Reich, spawned the rapid expansion of the Luftwaffe. <mask>'s fighter pilot career benefited from this expansion and he was transferred to the I./Jagdgeschwader 138 (I./JG 138—1st group of the 138th Fighter Wing) stationed in Wien-Schwechat on 1 July 1938. Here he underwent flight conversion training from the Heinkel He 51 biplane to the then modern Messerschmitt Bf 109. This posed challenges, and on 21 June and again 19 July 1939, he damaged his Bf 109 during takeoff and landing. In 1939, <mask> bought a DKW Meisterklasse automobile.With this car he went on a tour through Italy where he met his future fiancée Katharina Egger from South Tyrol. On 1 May 1939, his unit I./JG 138 was re-designated I./Jagdgeschwader 76 (I./JG 76—1st group of the 76th Fighter Wing). World War II
The German invasion of Poland began on 1 September 1939, and marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. <mask>'s unit was tasked with bomber escort and ground attack as well as combat air patrol missions. He was credited with his first aerial victory on 5 September 1939 over a PZL P.24  south of Radomsko. <mask> maneuvered himself into a favorable attack position and aimed carefully. Just as he was about to open fire, the enemy pilot bailed out without firing a single shot.Nevertheless, he was given credit for the destruction of the aircraft and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class (), which was presented to him on 10 October 1939. He lost his wingman during the Phoney War air skirmishes with the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) in late November 1939. Case Yellow (Fall Gelb), the invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, marked the beginning of the Battle of France. <mask> claimed four victories in the early phase of the campaign which earned him the Iron Cross 1st Class () on 31 May 1940. The next day, 1 June, he was promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) and appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader). His unit was tasked with bomber escort missions against the British Expeditionary Force in the Battle of Dunkirk and was relocated to airbases in the vicinity of Paris on 3 June. Following the armistice on 22 June I./JG 76 was moved to Eindhoven and Schiphol where they were tasked with the aerial defense of the Netherlands.On 5 July 1940, I./JG 76 was renamed II./Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54—54th Fighter Wing), 1./JG 76 became 4./JG 54, and at the same time relocated at Campagne, south of Calais. On 25 August 1940, the Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 4. Staffel of JG 54, Oberleutnant Dietrich Hrabak, was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 54. In consequence, <mask> was given command of 4./JG 54. Battle of Britain
Aerial operations in what would become the Battle of Britain began for his unit on 12 July 1940. The fighting reached a climax on 7 August when Eagle Day was launched (code name Adlertag). Hitler had issued Führer Directive no.17 (Weisung Nr. 17) on 1 August 1940; the strategic objective was to engage and defeat the Royal Air Force (RAF) to achieve air supremacy, or at least air superiority, in preparation for Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe), the proposed amphibious invasion of Great Britain. From 7 September onwards, the Luftwaffe switched to attack British towns and cities, with London coming under particularly heavy attack, during what was dubbed

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 The Blitz by the British. In total, <mask> flew 130 missions over England. His number of aerial victories increased, including his 12th to 15th on 27 September, which led to the presentation of the Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe () on 28 September 1940. He claimed his 20th victory on 20 October, and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (). He was the second pilot of JG 54 to receive this award.The first was his Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) Hauptmann Hrabak, who received the award one day earlier. The German air offensive against England was a failure, and only resulted in heavy losses. To replenish these, II./JG 54 was withdrawn from the Channel Front on 3 December 1940 and stationed at Delmenhorst. The pilots were sent on a ski vacation at Kitzbühl and given home leave. <mask> made a public propaganda appearance at his Franziskaneum home school on 16 December, speaking of his actions as fighter pilot. On 15 January 1941, his unit was moved to Le Mans, southwest of Paris, to protect the airspace over Normandy. Here they stayed until 29 March 1941 when they were ordered to Graz-Thalerhof in preparation for the attack on Yugoslavia.Balkans campaign and Operation Barbarossa
The Balkans campaign began on 6 April 1941, with multiple objectives. Operation Marita was the codename for the German invasion of Greece, while JG 54's Stab, II. Gruppe, and III. Gruppe were committed to the invasion of Yugoslavia. During the early missions, JG 54 engaged the Bf 109s of the Jugoslovensko Kraljevsko Ratno Vazduhoplovstvo (JKRV—Yugoslav Royal Air Force) in numerous air battles. <mask> claimed two JKRV Bf 109s shot down during a Stuka escort mission on the second day of operations on 7 April, taking his total to 25 aerial victories. 4./JG 54 made four claims in total.<mask>'s opponents were from 32 Grupa which suffered eight Yugoslav-flown Bf 109s shot down. Five pilots were killed—Captain Miha Klavova, 104 Eskadrila; Second Lieutenant Jovan Kapesic, 103 Eskadrila; Warrant Officer Branislav Todorovic, 103 Eskadrila, Sergeant Vladimir Gorup, 103 Eskadrila and Sergeant Milivoje Boskovic, 104 Eskadrila. Following the surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April 1941, while stationed at an airfield at Zemun near Belgrade, the Geschwader received orders on 3 May 1941 to turn over all Bf 109-Es so they could receive the new Bf 109-F variant. Transition training was completed at Airfield Stolp-Reitz in Pomerania. Following intensive training, the Geschwader was moved to airfields in Eastern Prussia. On 22 June at 03:05, 120 aircraft of the Geschwader crossed into Soviet airspace in support of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. <mask>, like many other German fighter pilots, enjoyed superiority over his Soviet adversaries in the early phase of Barbarossa, both in terms of the training he had received and the aircraft that he flew.He quickly accumulated further victories and on account of his 31st to 33rd victories achieved on 4 July was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht radio report, the first of five such mentions, on 7 July. <mask> claimed his 62nd victory on 24 August 1941, an achievement which earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (). He was the 33rd member of the German armed forces to be so honored. The presentation was made on 27 August 1941 by Hitler at the Führer Headquarter Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn in Poland). Following the loss of Hauptmann Franz Eckerle, who had been reported as missing in action since 14 February 1942, <mask>, who had claimed his 77th victory, was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 54 on 17 February 1942. On 23 February, <mask> shot down his 82nd opponent, the 158 IAP's (158th Fighter Aviation Regiment) Leytenant Mikhail Satalkin, who was posted as missing in action. Eastern Front

Following his 86th victory claimed on 12 March 1942, <mask> became the first member of the Geschwader to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords ().The Swords had been awarded only seven times before. The presentation on 5 April 1942 was again made by Hitler himself at the Wolfsschanze. By this date his total had increased further. On 31 March 1942, he became only the fourth Luftwaffe fighter pilot to achieve 100 victories. Following the presentation of the Swords, <mask> went on home leave. Again he was asked to make a number of propaganda appearances. On 1 May 1942, he spoke before his home school and before the Meissen youth at the Hamburger Hof.He, his mother and his fiancée were also invited to Meissen Town Hall on 30 April. Among other officials, present were the NSDAP-Kreisleiter (county leader) Helmut Böhme and the mayor of Meissen, Walter Kaule. <mask> was granted the privilege of signing the Meissen Golden Book (Goldenes Buch)—a book signed in German communities and cities by special guests of honor. <mask> returned to the Eastern Front at Krasnogwardejsk south of Leningrad and claimed his 101st to 103rd victories on 6 June 1942, which were mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht on 7 June. His third mention in the Wehrmachtbericht on 27 June came after he achieved his 108th to 110th victories on 26 June. In addition to the references in the Wehrmachtbericht he received the German Cross in Gold () on 29 June 1942. He also received the Croatian Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir () 2nd Class with Swords on 15 September 1942 for his work with the Croatian Air Force Legion's fighter unit commanded by Franjo Džal.On 14 January 1943, he claimed his 150th aerial victory. This led to the presentation of the Picture of the Reichsmarschall in Silver Frame () on 16 February 1943. His unit received the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in February 1943. He quickly accumulated further victories, and on 17 March 1943, his 26th birthday, he claimed his 200th to 203rd enemy aircraft shot down, recognized by his fourth mention in the Wehrmachtbericht. He was the second pilot after Hermann Graf to achieve this mark, and at the time was the most successful fighter pilot of the Luftwaffe. Wing commander of JG 1 and death
In April 1943, <mask> was transferred to Defense of the Reich duties as Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG 1—1st Fighter Wing), flying high altitude interception operations against the USAAF Eighth Air Force over the North Sea and northern Germany. He succeeded Oberstleutnant Erich Mix who was transferred.<mask> claimed his 204th victory on 2 May, and his 205th on 18 May before falling ill with appendicitis. This required hospitalization in Meissen. On 4 October 1943, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring is said to have issued the following instructions after another attack by the Eighth Air Force. There are no meteorological conditions which would prevent fighters from taking off and engaging in combat. Every fighter pilot returning in a machine not showing any sign of combat, or without having recorded a victory will be prosecuted by a court-martial. In the case of where a pilot uses up his ammunition, or if his weapons are unusable, he should ram the enemy bomber. <mask>'s response was "As far as I'm concerned, I categorically refuse to allow myself to be held to such advice; I know what I have to do!"On 8 October 1943, the US Eighth Air Force attacked targets in Bremen and Vegesack with 156 bombers. The bombers were escorted by more than 250 Thunderbolts from six different fighter groups. Phillipp's flight was intercepted by P-47s of the 56th Fighter Group. The Stab Flight of the Geschwader heard <mask> announce a victory over a Thunderbolt. The last transmission from him was, "Reinhardt, attack! ", Feldwebel <mask> Reinhardt was <mask>'s wingman on this day. He last saw the Kommodore's aircraft disappear in a cloud.Reinhardt was wounded after colliding with an enemy aircraft, but made a successful forced landing. Later that evening, the Geschwader learned that their Geschwaderkommodore had been shot down and killed in his Fw 190 A-6 "Red 6" (Werknummer 530407—factory number). The report filed by Reinhardt on 10 October 1943 stated that he and <mask> had taken off at 14:11 on a mission against enemy bombers in the vicinity of Bremen. The group led by Y-Verfahren (Y-Control) had sighted a formation of about 30 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses southwest of Bremen at 15:12. The bombers had already completed their bomb run and were returning to England. <mask> started his attack from the right, driving the attack to pointblank range, flaming one of the B-17s which crashed at 15:32. <mask> then flew under the formation to the left when he was hit from the defensive fire of a rear gunner on one of the B-17s which was lagging behind.<mask> then went into a dive and Rheinhardt asked by radio "what has happened?" His response was "Reinhardt, attack". Reinhardt, who had seen that <mask> had been hit, followed <mask> down until he disappeared in a lower cloud layer. More recent research has suggested that <mask> may also have been hit by a P-47 "Thunderbolt" piloted by Robert S. Johnson of the 61st Fighter Squadron. <mask> tried to return to his airfield, but was forced to bail out at low altitude at 15:45 between Hardenberg and Itterbeck, near Wielen (). His parachute failed to open and the jump from an altitude of about  mortally wounded him. His body was recovered and examined in the field hospital in Rheine the next day.The post mortem examination revealed extensive burns, particularly to the face, a laceration on the back of his head, multiple broken bones and flesh wounds as well as a particularly deep injury to his upper abdomen and inner organs. From Rheine, on 10 October 1943 <mask>'s body was transported to Meissen by train  where it arrived the next day. The Wehrmachtbericht announced his death on 12 October. The funeral at the Trinitatisfriedhof (Trinitatis Cemetery) in Meissen, on 14 October 1943, was dominated by military, public and Nazi officials. His coffin, which was draped in the national flag of Nazi Germany along with his honors and decorations on a velvet cushion, was put on display on the entry steps of the town hall in Meissen. Present at the funeral along with his mother, his fiancée and other members of the family, were Oberstleutnant Hannes Trautloft and Generaloberst Alfred Keller, who delivered the eulogy. <mask>'s mother died on 7 May 1973, her urn was buried next to her son.Summary of career

Aerial victory claims
Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 193 aerial victory claims, plus nine further unconfirmed claims. This figure includes 171 claims on the Eastern Front, two during the Balkan Campaign, and 20 claims on the Western Front, including one four-engined bomber. Prien, Stemmer, Rodeike and Bock list 206 aerial victory claims plus one further unconfirmed claim. This number includes up to two further unconfirmed claims on 31 March 1942. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 00281". The Luftwaffe grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in

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<mask>, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of the Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the territories in Italy that the Eastern Roman Empire had captured from his Kingdom in 540. A relative of Theudis, sword-bearer of Theodoric the Great and king of the Visigoths, Totila was elected king by Ostrogothic nobles in the autumn of 541 after King Witigis had been carried off prisoner to Constantinople. Totila proved himself both as a military and political leader, winning the support of the lower classes by liberating slaves and distributing land to the peasants. After a successful defence at Verona, Totila pursued and defeated a numerically superior army at the Battle of Faventia in 542 AD. Totila followed these victories by defeating the Romans outside Florence and capturing Naples. By 543, fighting on land and sea, he had reconquered the bulk of the lost territory.Rome held out, and Totila appealed unsuccessfully to the Senate in a letter reminding them of the loyalty of the Romans to his predecessor Theodoric the Great. In the spring of 544 the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I sent his general Belisarius to Italy to counterattack, but Totila captured Rome in 546 from Belisarius and depopulated the city after a yearlong siege. When Totila left to fight the Byzantines in Lucania, south of Naples, Belisarius retook Rome and rebuilt its fortifications. After Belisarius retreated to Constantinople in 549, Totila recaptured Rome, going on to complete the reconquest of Italy and Sicily. By the end of 550, Totila had recaptured all but Ravenna and four coastal towns. The following year Justinian sent his general Narses with a force of 35,000 Lombards, Gepids and Heruli to Italy in a march around the Adriatic Sea to approach Ravenna from the north. In the Battle of Taginae, a decisive engagement during the summer of 552, in the Apennines near present-day Fabriano, the Gothic army was defeated, and Totila was mortally wounded.Totila was succeeded by his relative, Teia, who later died at the Battle of Mons Lactarius. Pockets of resistance, reinforced by Franks and Alemanni who had invaded Italy in 553, continued until 562, when the Byzantines were in control of the whole of the country following Justinian's conquests. Early life

"Totila" was the nom de guerre of a man whose real name was Baduila, as can be seen from the coinage he issued. "Totila" is the name used by the Byzantine historian Procopius, who accompanied the Byzantine general Belisarius during the Gothic War, and whose chronicles are the main source of our information for Totila. According to Henry Bradley, 'Totila' and 'Baduila' are diminutives of Totabadws. Born in Treviso, Totila was a relative of Theudis, king of the Visigoths, and a sword-bearer; a role that made for a good career among his kin. Totila was elected king of the Ostrogoths in 541 after the assassination of his uncle Ildibad and having surreptitiously engineered the assassination of Ildibad's short-lived successor, his cousin Eraric, in 541.Like Alaric I, Totila was quite young when he became king and was declared such by the Goths to recover dominion over the Italians. The official Byzantine position, adopted by Procopius and even by the Romanized Goth, Jordanes—writing just before the conclusion of the Gothic Wars—was that Totila was a usurper. According to historian Peter Heather, as Ildebadus's nephew, Totila nonetheless hailed from a prominent Gothic family, one that surrounded and "even occasionally challenged Theodoric's Amal dynasty". Initial victories

Eraric's murder and replacement with Totila suggested to the Byzantines—since Eraric favored negotiation with Imperial power—that this Gothic successor likely preferred war and so a Byzantine expeditionary force of twelve-thousand men was sent north from Ravenna to Verona to stave off any possible impending attack. At Verona, a local sympathizer allowed a contingent of Roman soldiers into the city and while the Goths panicked at first, they soon realized that the main army was stopped some distance from the city. They promptly shut the gates and the Roman soldiers who had made it into the city escaped by leaping from the walls. Meanwhile the Roman forces retreated back to Faenza (Battle of Faventia), where Totila met them with 5,000 men to give battle, while another 300 Gothic archers surprised them from the rear, resulting in a rout, whereby the Goths acquired both prisoners and battle standards.Correspondingly, historian Thomas Burns claims that Totila was a gifted warrior and governor, and as an Ostrogoth ranks only second to Theodoric the Great himself. After securing victory in 542 at Faenza, Totila's Goths besieged the stoutly-defended Florence in an effort to open the Via Cassia to Rome but when Imperial forces arrived to relieve the city, Totila withdrew to the Mugello valley, where historian Herwig Wolfram states, they "inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy." Since this region was relatively spared of any previous conflicts, Totila's Goths were able to secure significant provisions and booty. In the meantime, instead of pursuing the conquest of central Italy, where the Imperial forces were too formidable for his small army, he decided to transfer his operations to the south of the peninsula. He captured Beneventum as well as Cumae, which remained a Gothic stronghold even after Gothic kingship no longer existed. During a period of crisis amid the Eastern Roman military leadership, which placed strains on its civilian population across its domains, historian Victor David Hanson asserts that Totila posed as a "national liberator who would throw off the renewed chains of Roman oppression." Hanson further contends that this squabbling among Byzantine generals from "different factions and ethnicities" caused the forfeiture of what Belisarius had previously won in 540.Totila's strategy was to move fast and take control of the countryside, leaving the Byzantine forces in control of well-defended cities, and especially the ports. When Belisarius eventually returned to Italy, Procopius relates that "during a space of five years he did not succeed once in setting foot on any part of the land... except where some fortress was, but during this whole period he kept sailing about visiting one port after another." Totila circumvented those cities where a drawn-out siege would have been required, razing the walls of cities that capitulated to him, such as Beneventum. Totila's conquest of Italy was marked not only by celerity but also by mercy, and Gibbon says "none were deceived, either friends or enemies, who depended on his faith or his clemency." After a successful siege of a resisting city, such as at Perugia, however, Totila could be merciless, as Procopius recounts. Procopius left a written portrayal of Totila before his troops were drawn up for battle:
The armour in which he was clad was abundantly plated with gold and the ample adornments which hung from his cheek plates as well as his helmet and spear were not only purple, but in other respects befitting a king … And he himself, sitting upon a very large horse, began to dance under arms skillfully between the two armies. And as he rode he hurled his javelin into the air and caught it again as it quivered above him, then passed it rapidly from hand to hand, shifting it with consummate skill.Where Totila learned this "dance" is never made clear by Procopius, but these actions likely meant something to the Goths and despite his firm conviction of coexistence with the Romans and their culture, Burns relates, much like Theodoric, he "remained a Goth." Despite his ethnic status as a Germanic warrior, Totila did not plunder the countryside for supplies like other barbarians had done; instead, he collected rent and taxes to provide the income he needed without ruining the cities and towns he captured. He also recruited slaves into the ranks of his army. Taking Naples

Procopius reported (Wars, 7.9–12) that during the next two campaigning seasons Totila was able to take several strategically important centers, including the fortress at Auximum, which allowed him to cut off land communications between Rome and Ravenna. Additional strongholds at Caesena, Urbinus, Mons Feretris, Petra Pertusa, Campania, Lucania, Apulia, Bruttium, and Calabria also fell to Totila's forces, placing the Goths in command of nearly all of southern Italy. Following these successes, Totila now led his army to Naples, laying siege to the city, which alarmed Justinian. The emperor responded by sending the civilian Maximin to meet the crisis.When Maximin attempted a ploy and sent ample food supplies via ships to give the appearance of a much larger army, it failed as Totila was fully informed of all the facts. The crews were slain and a second effort was made to resupply Conon in Naples. Despite the ships arriving safely, the vessels were blown ashore by a gale and these crews were slain and General Demetrius—sent at Maximin's behest—was taken captive by Totila. The Gothic king had Demetrius's hands cut off and his tongue removed before turning him loose. Nonetheless, Totila offered generous terms to Conon's starving garrison at Naples and they opened their gates in the spring of 543 to the Goths. Historian J.B. Bury writes:
On this occasion Totila exhibited a considerable humanity which was not to be expected, as the historian Procopius remarks, from an enemy or a barbarian.He knew that if an abundance of food were at once supplied, the famished inhabitants would gorge themselves to death. He posted sentinels at the gates and in the harbor and allowed no one to leave the city. Then he dealt out small rations, gradually increasing the quantity every day until the people had recovered their strength. The terms of the capitulation were more than faithfully observed. Conon and his followers were embarked in ships with which the Goths provided them, and when, deciding to sail for Rome, they were hindered by contrary winds, Totila furnished horses, provisions, and guides so that they could make the journey by land. The fortifications at Naples were partly razed. Totila spent the following season establishing himself in the south and reducing pockets of resistance, besieging the Roman garrisons that remained at Hydruntum, all the while building pressure on Rome itself.Unpaid Imperial troops in central Italy made such poor reputations pillaging the countryside that, when Totila turned his attention to taking Rome, he was able proudly to contrast Goth and Greek behavior in his initial negotiations with the senate. Hearkening back to the rule of Theodoric and Amalasuintha as a reminder of more peaceful times between the two peoples, Totila tried to convince them to throw in their lot with the Goths. His olive branch was rejected, however, and all the Arian priests were expelled from Constantinople, on suspicion of possible collaboration as a Gothic fifth column. Siege of Rome

Realizing the gravity of the situation in 544, Justinian issued an edict known as the Pragmatic Sanction, designed to rebuild a working government at Ravenna, and that year he also sent Belisarius back to Italy to counter the growing Gothic threat. Unlike in the past, Belisarius was not graciously financed and so the general used some of his own funds to pay for his journey to Italy. By May 544, both Belisarius and General Vitalius—and a contingent of a mere 4,000 troops—had passed through Thrace and were encamped at Salonia along the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Totila was preparing to capture Rome.Throughout the occupation of Italy, Totila never really wavered from the aim to recover the kingdom and sovereignty for the Goths (Procopius, Wars, 7.1.26), but not solely under those auspices, as historian Walter Goffart suggests; he avows it was also to become "subcontractors in upholding the nomen Romanum in Italy." Towards the end of 545 the Gothic king took up his station at Tivoli and prepared to starve Rome into surrender, making at the same time elaborate preparations for checking the progress of Belisarius who was advancing to its relief, and whose fleet almost managed to relieve the city. In December 545, Totila besieged Rome and a year later entered and plundered the city, where he prayed at St. Peter's Basilica, suggesting continuity with Theodoric, but the act was near meaningless since the city was practically empty. Once the siege of the city was complete, Totila planned to raze the city, but Belisarius sent message and convinced him otherwise, claiming that judgments into posterity would follow Totila if he did, so the latter refrained. Instead, Totila abandoned the city and took some of the Senate members hostage with him; meanwhile the great metropolis sat abandoned for some forty days. By April 546, Belisarius had retaken the city and Totila's initial effort to wrest it from the Roman general failed. However, as masters of Italy, the Goths controlled much of the peninsula and in 549, an Ostrogothic fleet "ravaged the coast of Campoania" and Rome too fell to Totila in January 550.More determined than ever to regain Italy, Justinian sent his nephew Germanus, whose marriage to a Gothic princess attracted German recruits, but he died on the eve of the expedition. Justinian replaced him with his son-in-law, John, and his son Justinian. John's forces to relieve a Roman garrison at Ancona were successful as were his warships at a battle along the anchorage of Sena Gallica, providing the Roman navy with control of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. According to historian Archibald Ross Lewis, the Byzantine victory at Sena Gallica was completely decisive, with some 36 of 47 Gothic ships destroyed. Meanwhile, one of Totila's Gothic admirals, Gibal, was captured. These developments proved important for subsequent campaigns, as it was necessary to end Totila's sea dominance before any land invasions could be properly conducted. Death

Totila's next exploit was the conquest and plunder of Sicily, after which he subdued Corsica and Sardinia and sent a Gothic fleet against the coasts of Greece.By this time the emperor Justinian I was taking energetic measures to check the Goths, assembling a large army and sending his navy against Totila's fleet, which it defeated in 551. The conduct of a new campaign on land was entrusted to the eunuch Narses, who took advantage of the lessening intensity of the Persian War and added contingents of Lombards, Gepid, and Heruls to his allied forces. Leading troops into Ravenna, Narses was able to challenge Totila at the Battle of Taginae (also known as the Battle of Busta Gallorum) near Sentinum. Totila was killed in the fighting. A similar battle followed a few months later under his successor and relative Teia, who died in combat as well during the Battle of Mons Lactarius. This additional defeat at the hands of the Eastern Roman Empire signaled the veritable end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy and no further king emerged. Another army supposedly 75,000 strong of Franks and Alemanni still existed as did the threat to Italy and despite the entry of these forces into the Po Valley and their ravaging of Italy for a time, Narses eventually brought them to heel.Meanwhile, the land held by the Gothic church was transferred to the Roman church in Italy and land owned by the Gothic kings went to the emperor. Aftermath
For the Byzantines, the war officially ended in 554, which was followed by the broad promulgation of Justinian's Pragmatic Sanction. One of the stipulations Justinian made clear in this document was the validation of all edicts made by "legitimate" kings and those from the Roman people or Senate, while those from Totila—deemed a "most abominable tyrant"—were rendered void. The Justinian Code was also retroactively made applicable throughout Italy. Socially, the country was disrupted by the actions of the Goths Witigis, Totila, and Teia, who had collectively fractured the Senate's social standing and the servant-based economy by liberating slaves and coloni. Over the longer term, this also meant that western senators were seen as inferior to their eastern counterparts, which in some ways further contributed to the Byzantine's ascendancy. Nevertheless, the country was so ravaged by war that any return to normal life proved impossible and Rome, having suffered through seventeen-years' worth of bitter fighting during the Gothic wars, had been besieged and captured multiple times.French historian Bertrand Lançon described this period of late antiquity as Rome's "darkest hours." In 568, only three years after Justinian's death, most of the country was conquered by Alboin of the Lombards, who absorbed the remaining Ostrogothic population, becoming the heirs of the Ostrogoths in Italy itself. References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Online

Further reading

External links

 The Diplomacy of <mask> (paper on Totila's foreign policy)
  La guerra gotico-bizantina
  Le sepolture regie del regno italico (secoli VI-X) – Totila (541–552)

552 deaths
6th-century kings of Italy
People from the Province of Treviso
Ostrogothic kings
6th-century monarchs in Europe
Gothic warriors
People of the Gothic War (535–554)
Year of birth unknown
Monarchs killed in action
6th-century Ostrogothic people

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Arnett William "<mask>" <mask> (November 26, 1898 – April 28, 1962) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at historically black colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana from 1924 to 1961, compiling a career college football record of 233–85–23. His head coaching positions were at Jarvis Christian College (1924–1926), Bishop College (1927–1929), Texas College (1931–1935), and Southern University (1936–1961). He has been inducted into at least eight halls of fame for his coaching accomplishments. Background
In 1924 <mask> graduated from Wilberforce University, where he served as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi social fraternity. He began coaching later that same year. After a brief stint at Jarvis Christian, he then coached football, basketball, and baseball at Bishop.He first came to the attention of Southern University officials after one of his Texas College teams soundly defeated Southern in a game; afterward, when a Southern dean accused his Texas College players of stealing from the school, <mask> forced all of his players to get off of the team bus and to display their personal belongings until the school's missing items could be located. Southern officials were impressed by both his coaching and disciplinary actions of that day. Once at Southern he was also known for emphasizing the importance of education. On the field itself he earned a reputation for perfectionism, making the team practice the same play late into the night to get it just right, even employing a white-colored football to assist visibility during late night use. He was also notably opposed to attempting field goals; at one point Southern was documented to have made just three successful kicks in the decade prior to a November 1955 game—and perhaps even extending for an undocumented period of time after that as well. A contemporary newspaper article concerning a banquet to be held to recognize <mask> for his then-twenty years of service to Southern summed up his career:

In those days, long before the formal creation of the Bayou Classic, <mask> led Southern to an 8–1 record against Grambling State (including 5–1 against the famed Eddie Robinson). Southern's biggest intrastate rivalry of that era was actually with Xavier, and it quickly grew too heated to remain at on-campus venues.<mask> supported philanthropic efforts to move the game to a neutral field and convert it into a charitable fundraiser for the local chapter of the Lions Club, in its fight against the causes of visual impairment. Multiple "Glasses Bowl" classic games were held, starting in 1939. <mask> died of a heart attack at the age of 63, while directing a track meet. It is said that "he died in his cleats." <mask> once had the third most wins among all college football coaches, behind only Pop Warner and Amos Alonzo Stagg; he still has the fourth most wins among HBCU coaches, behind Robinson, Billy Joe, and "Big" John Merritt. <mask> led Texas College to 1 black college football national championship and Southern to 5 black national championships. He also coached Texas College to 2 and Southern to 11 Southwestern Athletic Conference football championships.During one particular stretch between 1948 and 1951, his teams posted a 38-game unbeaten streak. In addition, he coached Southern to the 1941 black national championship in basketball by taking the National Intercollegiate Invitational Tournament in Cincinnati. He also served as athletic director while at Southern. <mask>'s teams produced more than 40 All-Americans. In 1960 it was also estimated that "more than half of Louisiana's high school coaches are former Jaguars." By the 1939 season <mask>'s football program was so successful that it had begun turning heads even within the local white community; as a sign of the changing times, Southern had begun to advertise accommodations for white patrons on its new stadium grounds. When the stadium was completed in 1940, it included a 150-seat section for white patrons.One of the more noteworthy white fans was Ellis A. "Little Fuzzy" Brown who, along with his twin brother James ("Big Fuzzy"), coached Istrouma High School into the most successful dynasty in Louisiana's highest classification of prep football. Likewise, white coaches such as Frank Broyles and Bear Bryant were known to have visited Mumford during his coaching career to discuss football strategy. Mumford's 1948 team also further bridged the racial gap by participating in the first game between an HBCU and a predominantly white institution, at the Fruit Bowl; Southern defeated San Francisco State 30–0, and finished the year at 12–0—a single-season won–loss record that has yet to be surpassed by any HBCU team. As evidence of the respect that he retained within the HBCU coaching community, among the pallbearers and honorary pallbearers serving at his funeral were past, present, and future college football head coaches Alex Durley, T. B. Ellis, Jake Gaither, Zip Gayles, Howard Gentry, B. T. Harvey, Emory Hines, Bob Lee, Pop Long, Merritt, Billy Nicks, Alfred Priestly, Robinson, and E. E. Simmons. The funeral was officiated by Rev. Dr. T. J. Jemison.Among the honors bestowed upon <mask> include him being elected president of the SWAC and executive vice president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. In 1958 he was inducted into the NAIA–Helms Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1960 he was named "Coach of the Decade" for the 1950s by the 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta, an organization that fosters HBCU athletic competition. In 1961 he was given the Small College Service Award "for outstanding contributions to intercollegiate athletics" by the Football Writers Association of America. On February 25, 1962, shortly before his sudden death, <mask> was recognized by the Baton Rouge Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi "for outsanding achievement and social service." Though he was much more closely associated with the NAIA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association even made a special point to issue a memorial resolution for <mask> at its fifty-seventh annual convention, in 1963. Southern's A. W. Mumford Stadium, which saw its original concrete grandstand constructed during his tenure, was renamed for him on September 25, 1982, following an expansion project.<mask> was subsequently posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (1984), the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame (1988), the SWAC Hall of Fame (1992), the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame (before or in 2000), and the College Football Hall of Fame (2001). The American Football Coaches Association, of which he was a member, also selected him posthumously for the 2006 Trailblazer Award, for his coaching accomplishments at an HBCU in the decade of the 1940s (an especially noteworthy achievement considering that, back in 1960, he had been named "Coach of the Decade" for another decade—the 1950s). In 2011 he was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2016 the city of Buckhannon, West Virginia erected a plaque at the lot where his childhood home had been located. On November 4, 2016 <mask> was again acknowledged by the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame, this time with a new, life-sized statue bearing his likeness. Most recently he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame, in 2019. Head coaching record

See also
 List of college football coaches with 200 wins

References

External links

1898 births
1962 deaths
Bishop Tigers football coaches
Southern Jaguars and Lady Jaguars athletic directors
Southern Jaguars football coaches
Texas College Steers football coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Buckhannon, West Virginia
African-American coaches of American football
African-American college athletic directors in the United States
20th-century African-American sportspeople

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Admiral of the Blue <mask>, PC (19 August 171110 January 1761) was a British Admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759. He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761. Early life
The Honourable <mask>wen was born in Tregothnan, Cornwall, England, on 19 August 1711, the third son of <mask>, 1st Viscount Falmouth (1680–1734) by his wife Charlotte Godfrey (died 1754) elder daughter and co-heiress of Colonel Charles Godfrey, master of the jewel office by his wife Arabella Churchill, the King's mistress, and sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The young <mask> joined the navy at the age of 12 aboard  of 60 guns.Superb was sent to the West Indies with Admiral Francis Hosier. Boscawen stayed with Superb for three years during the Anglo-Spanish War. He was subsequently reassigned to , , and  under Admiral Sir Charles Wager and was aboard Namur when she sailed into Cadiz and Livorno following the Treaty of Seville that ended hostilities between Britain and Spain. On 25 May 1732 Boscawen was promoted lieutenant and in the August of the same year rejoined his old ship the 44-gun fourth-rate Hector in the Mediterranean. He remained with her until 16 October 1735 when he was promoted to the 70-gun . On 12 March 1736 Boscawen was promoted by Admiral Sir John Norris to the temporary command of the 50-gun . His promotion was confirmed by the Board of Admiralty.In June 1738 Boscawen was given command of , a small sixth-rate of 20 guns. He was ordered to accompany Admiral <mask> to the West Indies in preparation for the oncoming war with Spain. War of Jenkins' Ear

Porto Bello

The War of Jenkins' Ear proved to be Boscawen's first opportunity for action and when Shoreham was declared unfit for service he volunteered to accompany Vernon and the fleet sent to attack Porto Bello. During the siege, Boscawen was ordered with Sir Charles Knowles to destroy the forts. The task took three weeks and 122 barrels of gunpowder to accomplish but the British levelled the forts surrounding the town. Vernon's achievement was hailed in Britain as an outstanding feat of arms and in the furore that surrounded the announcement the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia" was played for the first time. Streets were named after Porto Bello throughout Britain and its colonies.When the fleet returned to Port Royal, Jamaica Shoreham had been refitted and Boscawen resumed command of her. Cartagena

In 1741 Boscawen was part of the fleet sent to attack another Caribbean port, Cartagena de Indias. Large reinforcements had been sent from Britain, including 8,000 soldiers who were landed to attack the chain of fortresses surrounding the Spanish colonial city. The Spanish had roughly 6,000 troops made up of regular soldiers, sailors and local loyalist natives. The siege lasted for over two months during which period the British troops suffered over 18,000 casualties, the vast majority from disease. Vernon's fleet suffered from dysentery, scurvy, yellow fever and other illnesses that were widespread throughout the Caribbean during the period. As a result of the battle Prime Minister Robert Walpole's government collapsed and George II removed his promise of support to the Austrians if the Prussians advanced into Silesia.The defeat of Vernon was a contributing factor to the increased hostilities of the War of the Austrian Succession. Boscawen had however distinguished himself once more. The land forces that he commanded had been instrumental in capturing Fort San Luis and Boca Chica Castle, and together with Knowles he destroyed the captured forts when the siege was abandoned. For his services he was promoted in May 1742 to the rank of captain and appointed to command the 70-gun Prince Frederick to replace Lord Aubrey Beauclerk who had died during the siege. War of the Austrian Succession

In 1742 Boscawen returned in Prince Frederick to England, where she was paid off and Boscawen joined the fleet commanded by Admiral Norris in the newly built 60-gun . In the same year he was returned as a Member of Parliament for Truro, a position he held until his death. At the 1747 general election he was also returned for Saltash, but chose to continue to sit for Truro.In 1744 the French attempted an invasion of England and Boscawen was with the fleet under Admiral Norris when the French fleet were sighted. The French under Admiral Rocquefeuil retreated and the British attempts to engage were confounded by a violent storm that swept the English Channel. Whilst cruising the Channel, Boscawen had the good fortune to capture the French frigate . She was the first capture of an enemy ship made during the War of Austrian Succession and was commanded by . Médée was sold and became a successful privateer under her new name Boscawen commanded by George Walker. At the end of 1744 Boscawen was given command of , guard ship at the Nore anchorage. He commanded her until 1745 when he was appointed to another of his old ships, HMS Namur, that had been reduced (razéed) from 90 guns to 74 guns.He was appointed to command a small squadron under Vice-Admiral Martin in the Channel. First Battle of Cape Finisterre

In 1747 Boscawen was ordered to join Admiral Anson and took an active part in the first Battle of Cape Finisterre. The British fleet sighted the French fleet on 3 May. The French fleet under Admiral de la Jonquière was convoying its merchant fleet to France and the British attacked. The French fleet was almost completely annihilated with all but two of the escorts taken and six merchantmen. Boscawen was injured in the shoulder during the battle by a musket ball. Once more the French captain, M. de Hocquart became Boscawen's prisoner and was taken to England.Command in India
Boscawen was promoted rear-admiral of the blue on 15 July 1747 and was appointed to command a joint operation being sent to the East Indies. With his flag in Namur, and with five other line of battle ships, a few smaller men of war, and a number of transports Boscawen sailed from England on 4 November 1747. On the outward voyage Boscawen made an abortive attempt to capture Mauritius by surprise but was driven off by French forces. Boscawen continued on arriving at Fort St. David near the town of Cuddalore on 29 July 1748 and took over command from Admiral Griffin. Boscawen had been ordered to capture and destroy the main French settlement in India at Pondichéry. Factors such as Boscawen's lack of knowledge and experience of land offensives, the failings of the engineers and artillery officers under his command, a lack of secrecy surrounding the operation and the skill of the French governor Joseph François Dupleix combined to thwart the attack. The British forces amounting to some 5,000 men captured and destroyed the outlying fort of Aranciopang.This capture was the only success of the operation and after failing to breach the walls of the city the British forces withdrew. Amongst the combatants were a young ensign Robert Clive, later known as Clive of India and Major Stringer Lawrence, later Commander-in-Chief, India. Lawrence was captured by the French during the retreat and exchanged after the news of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had reached India. Over the monsoon season Boscawen remained at Fort St David. Fortunately, for the Admiral and his staff, when a storm hit the British outpost Boscawen was ashore but his flagship Namur went down with over 600 men aboard. Boscawen returned to England in 1750. In 1751 Anson became First Lord of the Admiralty and asked Boscawen to serve on the Admiralty Board.Boscawen remained one of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty until his death. Seven Years' War

On 4 February 1755 Boscawen was promoted vice admiral and given command of a squadron on the North American Station. A squadron of partially disarmed French ships of the line were dispatched to Canada loaded with reinforcements and Boscawen was ordered to intercept them. The French ambassador to London, the Duc de Mirepoix had informed the government of George II that any act of hostility taken by British ships would be considered an act of war. Thick fog both obstructed Boscawen's reconnaissance and scattered the French ships, but on 8 June Boscawen's squadron sighted the Alcide, Lys and Dauphin Royal off Cape Ray off Newfoundland. In the ensuing engagement the British captured the Alcide and Lys but the Dauphin Royal escaped into the fog. Amongst the 1,500 men made prisoner was the captain of the Alcide.For M. de Hocquart it was the third time that Boscawen had fought him and taken his ship. Pay amounting to £80,000 was captured aboard the Lys. Boscawen, as vice-admiral commanding the squadron, would have been entitled to a sizeable share in the prize money. The British squadron headed for Halifax to regroup but a fever spread through the ships and the Vice-admiral was forced to return to England. Boscawen returned to the Channel Fleet and was commander-in-chief Portsmouth during the trial of Admiral John Byng. Boscawen signed the order of execution after the King had refused to grant the unfortunate admiral a pardon. Boscawen was advanced to Senior Naval Lord on the Admiralty Board in November 1756 but then stood down (as Senior Naval Lord although he remained on the Board) in April 1757, during the caretaker ministry, before being advanced to Senior Naval Lord again in July 1757.Siege of Louisburg

In October 1757 Boscawen was second in command under Admiral <mask>. On 7 February 1758 Boscawen was promoted to Admiral of the blue squadron. and ordered to take a fleet to North America. Once there, he took naval command at the siege of Louisburg during June and July 1758. On this occasion rather than entrust the land assault to a naval commander, the army was placed under the command of General Jeffrey Amherst and Brigadier James Wolfe. The siege of Louisburg was one of the key contributors to the capture of French possessions in Canada. Wolfe later would use Louisburg as a staging point for the siege of Quebec.The capture of the town took away from the French the only effective naval base that they had in Canada, as well as leading to the destruction of four of their ships of the line and the capture of another. On his return from North America Boscawen was awarded the Thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his service. The King made Boscawen a Privy Counsellor in recognition for his continued service both as a member of the Board of Admiralty and commander-in-chief. Battle of Lagos

In April 1759 Boscawen took command of a fleet bound for the Mediterranean. His aim was to prevent another planned invasion of Britain by the French. With his flag aboard the newly constructed  of 90 guns he blockaded Toulon and kept the fleet of Admiral de le Clue-Sabran in port. In order to tempt the French out of port, Boscawen sent three of his ships to bombard the port.The guns of the batteries surrounding the town drove off the British ships. Having sustained damage in the action and due to the constant weathering of ships on blockade duty Boscawen took his fleet to Gibraltar to refit and resupply. On 17 August a frigate that had been ordered to watch the Straits of Gibraltar signalled that the French fleet were in sight. Boscawen took his available ships to sea to engage de la Clue. During the night the British chased the French fleet and five of de la Clue's ships managed to separate from the fleet and escape. The others were driven in to a bay near Lagos, Portugal. The British overhauled the remaining seven ships of the French fleet and engaged.The French line of battle ship  began a duel with Namur but was outgunned and struck her colours. The damage aboard Namur forced Boscawen to shift his flag to  of 80 guns. Whilst transferring between ships, the small boat that Boscawen was in was hit by an enemy cannonball. Boscawen took off his wig and plugged the hole. Two more French ships,  and  escaped during the second night and on the morning of 19 August the British captured  and  and drove the French flagship  and  ashore where they foundered and were set on fire by their crews to stop the British from taking them off and repairing them. The five French ships that avoided the battle made their way to Cadiz where Boscawen ordered Admiral Thomas Broderick to blockade the port. Final years, death, and legacy
Boscawen returned to England, where he was promoted General of Marines in recognition of his service.He was given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh. Admiral <mask> <mask>,Admiral of the Blue, General of Marines,Lord of the Admiralty, and one of hisMajesty's most Honourable Privy Council.His birth, though noble,His titles, though illustrious,Were but incidental additions to his greatness. William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham and Prime Minister once said to Boscawen: "When I apply to other Officers respecting any expedition I may chance to project, they always raise difficulties, you always find expedients." Legacy

The town of Boscawen, New Hampshire is named after him.Two ships and a stone frigate of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Boscawen, after Admiral Boscawen, whilst another ship was planned but the plans were shelved before she was commissioned. The stone frigate was a training base for naval cadets and in consequence three ships were renamed HMS Boscawen whilst being used as the home base for the training establishment. Quotes
Boscawen was quoted as saying "To be sure I lose the fruits of the earth, but then, I am gathering the flowers of the Sea" (1756) and "Never fire, my lads, till you see the whites of the Frenchmen's eyes." Frances Evelyn Boscawen
In 1742 Boscawen married Frances Evelyn Glanville (1719–1805), with whom he had three sons and two daughters, and who became an important hostess of Bluestocking meetings after his death. The older daughter Frances married John Leveson-Gower, and the younger, Elizabeth married Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort. References

Sources

External links

History of War – Siege of Louisburg 1758
History of War – Battle of Lagos
National Trust – Hatchlands Park
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for <mask>scawen
Tregothnan Estate, Cornwall
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

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1711 births
1761 deaths
Younger sons of viscounts
Royal Navy admirals
Lords of the Admiralty
British military personnel of the French and Indian War
Royal Navy personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession
Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Truro
British MPs 1741–1747
British MPs 1747–1754
British MPs 1754–1761
Burials in Cornwall
Edward
18th-century English politicians
Sailors from Cornwall
British military personnel of the Anglo-Spanish War (1727–1729)
Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War
People of Father Le Loutre's War

masks:
Edward Boscawen
Edward Bosca
Hugh Boscawen
Edward
Edward Vernon
Edward Hawke
BoscaEdward
Boscawen
Edward Bo


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<mask> (November 22, 1925 – October 18, 2007) was an American trauma surgeon. He is known for his research on shock, which initiated the current practice of giving saline to trauma and surgical patients. He operated on John Connally and Lee Harvey Oswald after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Biography
Born in Waco, Texas Shires was brought up in Dallas. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas, Texas) in 1942 and thereafter gained a B.S. degree from the University of Texas (1944), and an M.D. degree from the Southwestern Medical School, a school that opened five years earlier and is now called the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (1948).During his time as an undergraduate at Texas, Shires was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was married to Robbie Jo <mask> (Martin); the couple had a son and two daughters. <mask> died of gastrointestinal cancer at Henderson, Nevada in 2007. Career
Shires served his residency at the Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. He worked at the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda (1949–1950) and as a surgeon in the U.S. Navy on the hospital ship USS Haven (1953–55). In 1957, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, becoming chair of surgery in 1961.During his time in Dallas, he worked with the Dallas Fire Department to initiate one of the country's earliest paramedic systems. In 1974, he briefly served as chair of surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. <mask> then became chair of surgery at Cornell University Medical College in New York in 1975, where he also served as dean and provost of medicine (1987–91). At Cornell, he was instrumental in establishing a trauma centre and, in 1976, a burns centre. Now part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the burns centre has become an internationally recognised facility which is among the busiest in the USA, treating a thousand patients annually. He was also involved in reorganising New York's emergency services. From 1991 to 1995, <mask> chaired the surgery department at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.He then served as director of the Trauma Institute at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, a post he held until his death. Assassination of John F. Kennedy
After President John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963, he was brought to Parkland Memorial Hospital, from Galveston where he was speaking by NASA jet, where Shires was then chief of surgery, and it was Shires who issued the statement that the president had been dead on arrival at the hospital. Shires successfully operated on John Connally, the Governor of Texas, who was also wounded in the assassination. He later also operated unsuccessfully on gunman Lee Harvey Oswald after he was shot by Jack Ruby. Research and writing
Shires' research in the 1960s on the physiology of shock showed that, contrary to the practice of the time, surgical patients and patients with trauma require intravenous saline solution. According to Philip Barie (critical care and trauma chief at Cornell), this discovery "changed the practice of medicine" and was responsible for current medical practice. His other research areas included the treatment of burns; management of the severe exfoliating disorders, toxic epidermal necrolysis and Stevens–Johnson syndrome; physiology of haemorrhage; responses to endotoxin;  and the epidemiology of suicide.He co-authored several books on surgery and trauma, including the well-known textbook Principles of Surgery, which was first published in 1969 and is currently in its seventh edition. Awards and honors
In 1985, <mask> was ranked the top academic surgeon in the USA by Claude Organ, then president of the American College of Surgeons. He was among the first to receive a MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) grant from the NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences in 1986, for his work on saline solutions in shock. His awards include the Surgeon's Award for Service to Safety (1984), Curtis P. Artz Memorial Award of the American Trauma Society (1984), Dr Rodman E. Sheen and Thomas G. Sheen Award (1985), Harvey Stuart Allen Distinguished Service Award of the American Burn Association (1988) and the Robert Danis Prize of the International Surgical Society (1993). He served as president of the American Surgical Association (1979–80), American College of Surgeons (1981–82), the US chapter of the International Surgical Society (1984–85) and the James IV Association of Surgeons (1987–91). <mask> was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (1982–92) and editor of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics (1982–94). He also served on the editorial boards of many medical and surgical journals, including Annals of Surgery, Annual Review of Medicine, Archives of Surgery, American Journal of Surgery, Journal of Clinical Surgery and Journal of Trauma.Shires was inducted into the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame in 1989 when it was created as part of the celebration of the school's 60th Anniversary. Selected publications

Books
Shires GT, Carrico CJ, Canizaro PC. Shock (Major Problems in Clinical Surgery, Vol. 13) (Saunders, 1973) ()
Shires GT, ed. Shock and Related Problems (Churchill Livingstone; 1984) ()
Shires GT. Principles of Trauma Care, 3rd edn (McGraw-Hill; 1984) ()
Davis JM, Shires GT, eds. Host Defenses in Trauma and Surgery (Raven Press; 1986) ()
Shires GT, ed.Fluids, Electrolytes, and Acid Bases (Churchill Livingstone; 1988) ()
Davis JM, Shires GT, eds. Principles and Management of Surgical Infections (Lippincott; 1991) ()
Barie PS, Shires GT, eds. Surgical Intensive Care (Little, Brown; 1993) ()
Schwartz SI, Spencer FC, Galloway AC, Shires TG, Daly JM, Fischer JE. Principles of Surgery, 7th edn (McGraw-Hill; 1999) ()

Research articles
Shires T, Jackson DE. (1962) Postoperative salt tolerance. Arch Surg 84: 703–706 ()
Shires GT, Cunningham JN, Backer CR et al.. (1972) Alterations in cellular membrane function during hemorrhagic shock in primates. Ann Surg 176: 288–295 () (full text)
Hefton JM, Madden MR, Finkelstein JL, Shires GT.(1983) Grafting of burn patients with allografts of cultured epidermal cells. Lancet 2(8347): 428–430 ()
Halebian PH, Corder VJ, Madden MR et al.. (1986) Improved burn center survival of patients with toxic epidermal necrolysis managed without corticosteroids. Ann Surg 204: 503–512 () (full text)
Fong YM, Marano MA, Barber A et al.. (1989) Total parenteral nutrition and bowel rest modify the metabolic response to endotoxin in humans. Ann Surg 210: 449–456 () (full text)
Fong YM, Marano MA, Moldawer LL et al.. (1990) The acute splanchnic and peripheral tissue metabolic response to endotoxin in humans. J Clin Invest 85: 1896–1904 () (full text)

References

1925 births
2007 deaths
American surgeons
University of Texas at Austin alumni
University of Texas at Austin faculty
University of Washington faculty
Cornell University faculty
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center faculty
University of Nevada, Las Vegas faculty
People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
American Surgical Association members

masks:
George Thomas Shires
Shires
Shires
Shires
Shires
Shires
Shires


texts:
<mask> (born <mask>; December 23, 1935 – August 7, 1984) was an American singer, best known for her R&B vocals. She rose to prominence in 1950, scoring several major R&B hits including "Double Crossing Blues" and "Mistrustin' Blues" under the moniker "Little Esther". In the 1960s, she achieved chart success with the country song "Release Me" and recorded in the pop, jazz, blues and soul genres. <mask> received a Grammy nomination for her single "Home Is Where the Hatred Is" in 1973 and her disco recording of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" was a major hit in 1975. She died from liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug abuse in 1984. Biography

Early life
<mask> was born <mask> in Galveston, Texas, U.S. Her parents divorced during her adolescence, and she divided her time between her father, in Houston, and her mother, in the Watts section of Los Angeles.She was brought up singing in church and was reluctant to enter a talent contest at a local blues club, but her sister insisted. A mature singer at the age of 14, she won the amateur talent contest in 1949 at the Barrelhouse Club, owned by Johnny Otis. Otis was so impressed that he recorded her for Modern Records and added her to his traveling revue, the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, billed as <mask>. She later took the surname <mask> as her stage name, reportedly inspired by a sign at a gas station. Early career
Her first hit record was "Double Crossing Blues", with the Johnny Otis Quintette and the Robins (a vocal group), released in 1950 by Savoy Records, which reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. She made several hit records for Savoy with the Johnny Otis Orchestra, including "Mistrusting Blues" (a duet with Mel Walker) and "Cupid's Boogie", both of which also went to number 1 that year. Four more of her records made the Top 10 in the same year: "Misery" (number 9), "Deceivin' Blues" (number 4), "Wedding Boogie" (number 6), and "Far Away Blues (Xmas Blues)" (number 6).Few female artists performing in any genre had such success in their debut year. <mask> left Otis and the Savoy label at the end of 1950 and signed with Federal Records. But just as quickly as the hits had started, they stopped. She recorded more than thirty sides for Federal, but only one, "Ring-a-Ding-Doo", made the charts, reaching number 8 in 1952. Not working with Otis was part of her problem; the other part was her deepening dependence on heroin, to which she was addicted by the middle of the decade. In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father and recuperate. Short on money, she worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, Kentucky, to treat her addiction.In 1962, Kenny Rogers discovered her singing at a Houston club and helped her get a contract with Lenox Records, owned by his brother Lelan. Comeback
<mask> eventually recovered enough to launch a comeback in 1962. Now billed as <mask> instead of <mask>, she recorded a country tune, "Release Me", with the producer Bob Gans. This went to number 1 on the R&B chart and number 8 on the pop chart. After several other minor R&B hits for Lenox, she was signed by Atlantic Records. Her cover of the Beatles' song "And I Love Him" nearly made the R&B Top 20 in 1965. The Beatles flew her to the UK for her first overseas performances.She had other hits in the 1960s for Atlantic, such as the Jimmy Radcliffe song "Try Me", which featured a saxophone part by King Curtis (and is often mistakenly credited as the James Brown song of the same title), but she had no more chart-toppers. Her heroin dependence worsened, and she checked into a rehabilitation facility. There she met the singer Sam Fletcher. While undergoing treatment, she recorded some sides for Roulette in 1969, mostly produced by Lelan Rogers. On her release, she returned to Los Angeles and re-signed with Atlantic. Her friendship with Fletcher resulted in a performance engagement at Freddie Jett's Pied Piper club in late 1969, which produced the album Burnin'''. She performed with the Johnny Otis Show at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1970.The 1970s and 1980s

One of her biggest post-1950s triumphs was her first album for the Kudu label, From a Whisper to a Scream, in 1972. The lead track, "Home Is Where the Hatred Is", an account of drug use written by Gil Scott-Heron, was nominated for a Grammy Award. <mask> lost to Aretha Franklin, but Franklin presented the trophy to her, saying she should have won it instead. In 1975, she released a disco-style update of Dinah Washington's "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes", her biggest hit single since "Release Me". It reached the Top 20 in the United States and the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. On November 8, 1975, she performed the song on an episode of NBC's Saturday Night (later called Saturday Night Live) hosted by Candice Bergen. The accompanying album of the same name became her biggest seller yet, with arranger Joe Beck on guitar, Michael Brecker on tenor sax, David Sanborn on alto sax, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Steve Khan on guitar and Don Grolnick on keyboards.She continued to record and perform throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, completing seven albums for Kudu/CTI and four for Mercury Records, which signed her in 1977. Her first album for Mercury, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, was released that year; according to Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, "using Kudu producer Pee Wee Ellis and the basic Kudu formula—mixing blues and standards and rock with MOR and disco crossovers—she comes up with her most consistent album of the '70s." In 1983, she charted for the final time with "Turn Me Out" which reached number 85 on the R&B chart. She completed recording her final album, A Way To Say Goodbye a few months before her death; it was released by the Muse jazz label in 1986. Death
<mask> died at UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California, in 1984, at the age of 48, from liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug abuse. Her funeral services were conducted by Johnny Otis. Originally buried in an unmarked pauper's grave at Lincoln Memorial Park in Compton, she was reinterred in 1985 in the Morning Light section at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles.A bronze marker recognizes her career achievements and quotes a Bible passage: "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions" (John 14:2). Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
<mask> was twice nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986 and 1987, but was not inducted. Grammy nominations

 Discography

 Albums
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Label
! style="font-size:smaller" width="40"|US
! style="font-size:smaller" width="40"|USJazz
! style="font-size:smaller" width="40"|USR&B
! |align="center"|
|align="center"|
|align="center"|
|align="center"| -
|}

 Singles

Notes: *With the Johnny Otis Orchestra.**With Big Al Downing. ***"What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" also reached number 2 on the US Dance chart. Another two-sided single, "Magic's In the Air" / "Boy I Really Tied One On", peaked at number 5 on the same chart in 1976. Filmography
Television
 1965: The Music of Lennon & McCartney, musical guest
 1970: The Barbara McNair Show, musical guest
 1970: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, musical guest
 1975: Saturday Night Live, musical guest

 1975: Soul Train'', Musical Guest

References

External links
 [ Allmusic biography]

1935 births
1984 deaths
People from Galveston, Texas
American rhythm and blues singers
Drug-related deaths in California
Atlantic Records artists
Jazz-blues musicians
Modern Records artists
Mercury Records artists
Muse Records artists
Singers from Texas
Singers from California
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
CTI Records artists

masks:
Esther Phillips
Esther Mae Jones
Phillips
Phillips
Esther Mae Jones
Little Esther
Phillips
Phillips
Phillips
Esther Phillips
Little Esther
Phillips
Phillips
Phillips