by Michael D. Wynne
It is exciting to know of and to visit the home sites of our great military leaders. Some of these important generals that came to Central Louisiana include George Custer, William T. Sherman, George S. Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, Mark Clark, George Marshall and Omar Bradley, just to name a few. This columnist has worked several years conducting extensive interviews and research of many historical sources in order to try to locate their exact lodgings while staying here. The lodging sites for various generals have been positively identified and future articles will be published by this columnist of these generals’ homes in CENLA.
General of the Army, Omar Nelson Bradley (1893 – 1981), was the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military’s policy-making in the Korean War . Bradley was here during the Louisiana Maneuvers which were a series of U.S. Army exercises held around Northern and Western-Central Louisiana in 1940 and 1941. The exercises, which involved some 400,000 troops, were designed to evaluate U.S. training, logistics , doctrine , and commanders. Then Lieutenant Colonel Bradley gained invaluable experience for the future war. Bradley later said publicly that Louisianans welcomed the soldiers with open arms.
This columnist has found three separate residences for Bradley. This was not uncommon as these leaders often only rented their homes and lodgings because they came in and out of the area for varied stretches of time.
One important residence dating to 1942 that General Bradley lived at in Alexandria was at 2500 Avenue C. This very nice frame home was built in the late 30’s and has been owned over the years by many different families. The current owners are Preston and Morgan Jones, a nice young couple. Proudly framed and hanging on the wall in their home for many years in the area that Bradley likely used as his personal office is a Life Magazine cover that features Bradley’s portrait.
Little is known of their stay here except for one story. According to the late Dale Genius and several others, Dale’s mother, Mrs. Winston (Crena) Genius (1916-2004), who lived then on Avenue C, went to visit Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Bradley, her neighbors, to invite them to have coffee with the neighborhood women. Mrs. Patton reportedly replied to her that they didn’t “fraternize with (their) neighbors.”
The Bradley family’s next home was much easier to document and verify. After reading hundreds of TOWN TALKs from the 40’s on, I finally found a February 21, 1942 TOWN TALK front page article. The article said (excerpt):
“Major General Omar N. Bradley, named this week by the War Department as commander of the 82nd (All-American) division being organized at Camp Claiborne, has arrived in Alexandria. General and Mrs. Bradley will reside at 2014 Marye Street after about March 1st …” (The article goes on at length about his personal history and military record.)
Bradley’s still lovely and historic residence, 2014 Marye Street, is a two-story stucco-over-wood residence that was built about 1921 by C. G. David. The home has been sold many times over the years and was vacant at the time the Bradleys moved there in 1942. The Bradleys lived there for several months and Mrs. Bradley, according to Town Talk articles, often entertained both military and civilian wives at this lovely cottage. This historic Bradley home is currently owned by Bryan and Libby Tarver.
Lastly, many of the great generals ate at the Hotel Bentley and briefly also stayed there. In an article from the TOWN TALK from September 24, 1972 when former long-time Hotel Bentley manager, Herman P. Glasscock, was interviewed, he said, “It was in this era (early 1940’s) that General Omar Bradley and his wife lived there (Hotel Bentley) for a time. Bradley presented Glasscock with a large artillery shell with his name on it …”
