Corporal Joseph J. Clinton isn’t a Norwalker but is from the next town east, Westport. As is common practice in the Veterans of Foreign Wars, posts are named for a deceased veteran that the membership feels deserves permanent recognition, which the post in Westport did in April 1920. I started looking into him a couple of years ago. Recently, the descendants of the only family of Corporal Clinton’s daughter, Rita, have connected with the post.
This is for the members of the Joseph J. Clinton VFW Post 399 at 465 Riverside Avenue in Westport and for all who still care about his life and service.
DOB/DOD: May 1, 1893 (New York, NY) – November 7, 1918; 25 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married to Mary Ellen “May” Keehan (1889-1966). Later, Mary E. Keehan Clinton married Francis V. “Frank” Dickerman (1889-1960). One half-brother, Frank T. Dickerman (1925-).
CHILDREN: One daughter, Mary Rita Clinton (1918-2004).
LOCAL ADDRESS: Compo Street, Westport
ENLISTMENT: November 21, 1917
SERVICE NUMBER: 2388024
UNIT: Company I, 61st Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division
FAMILY: Born to John Jerome Clinton (-) and August Clinton Gaffney (1863-1946). One sister, Florence Clinton (1895-1921).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Died of wounds received in Ancerville, France, on November 7, 1918. Four days later, on November 11, 1918, the armistice ending World War I was signed.
OTHER: The 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)—nicknamed the “Red Diamond,” the “Red Devils,” or “die, Roten Teufel [in German],” was an infantry division of the United States Army that served in World War I. Corporal Joseph J. Clinton was most likely killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, or Maas-Argonne Offensive. Also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire western front. It lasted from September 26, 1918, to November 11, 1918. The Meuse-Argonne was “probably the bloodiest single battle in U.S. history,” in the sense that it had the largest number of U.S. dead in a single battle.
My sincere gratitude to the descendants of Corporal Clinton’s daughter Rita’s half-brother Frank T. Dickerman (still living at the age of 99). In their words, “We aren’t technically related to Joseph, but we were all the family that Rita ever had – she never married or had kids – so we feel a special connection to Joseph. Even though Aunt Rita never met him, she always spoke about him with such reverence. She even had a pet parakeet that she named “Joey” after him.”
Click HERE to read a letter from Leo Keehan (brother of May) written from France shortly after Joseph’s death. Kyle Derkowski carefully transcribed the letter from the original paper version. In his words, “It’s incredibly touching. Please use it as you see fit; it would please us very much to know that it is remembered somehow.”
From an unknown newspaper
CORPORAL J.J. CLINTON WHO SACRIFICED LIFE FOR HIS MEN
Military funeral services will be held tomorrow at Westport, Connecticut, for Corporal Joseph J. Clinton, a former Bronx boy who sacrificed his life in wiping out a machine gun nest so that those of his company might be saved. Corporal Clinton, who was a member of Company I, Sixty-first Infantry, was a former parishioner of St. Jerome’s Roman Catholic Church, Bronx. His body was among the recent consignment brought back from France. The services will be conducted at the home of his mother, Mrs. Augusta Clinton, at Westport at 9 a.m. and will be under the auspices of the Joseph J. Clinton Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, which was named after the deceased hero. Corporal Clinton received his mortal wound at Ancreville, in the Meuse-Argonne Drive on November 7, 1918, just four days before the Armistice halting hostilities was signed and the very day that all New York was celebrating the premature news of the signing of the document. Early on that day, he volunteered to clean out a German machine gun nest, which was endangering the men of this company and succeeded in the task. While making his way back, he was picked off by a sniper but managed to reach a field hospital before he succumbed. Captain R.S. Fisher, commander of Company I, later in writing to the widow of the dead hero, said: “It may interest you to know that Corporal Clinton did not ‘get his’ by a stray shell — but as a man and a real hero. When Company I was fighting four full companies of machine gunners, your husband volunteered to take his squad and drive out several particularly well-placed machine gun nests. He drove them out and saved many lives of his mates in the company, but after finishing the job, he was picked off by a Hun sniper. It may also be of interest to you to know that one of the men in your husband’s squad later got the Hun, thereby avenging his death.” Surviving are his widow, Mrs. May E. Clinton, and a small daughter, Mary Rita Clinton, his mother, and a sister, Miss Florence Clinton.
Namesake of VFW Post 399 in Westport, Connecticut
Memorialized on the Veterans Memorial Green, between Main and Myrtle Avenue, Westport, Connecticut.
Buried in Christ and Holy Trinity Cemetery (aka Old Assumption Cemetery), 80 Kings Highway, Westport, Connecticut.
END
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