Everyone Liked Son, Mother Says
San Diego Union · February 7, 1964 · A-17
“I don’t see how anyone could be his enemy. He was a good boy, someone that everyone liked . . .”
Mrs. Mary Swindle of Jasper, Ala., was speaking of her son. A newspaperman in Jasper had broken the sad news: Her Johnny Ray, 20, and his bride, Joyce Ann, 19, were dead of a sniper’s bullets in San Diego.
“I just got a letter from Johnny Ray today,” Mrs. Swindle sobbed in a telephone interview with The San Diego Union. “It arrived after we knew he was dead.
Mrs. Swindle said her son and his childhood sweetheart were married Jan. 18 in Parrish, Ala., after he flew home from San Diego for their wedding. The couple got a car for a wedding present and drove to New Orleans to visit one of his sisters. Then they motored to San Diego. He was to start a new six-year hitch in the Navy in July.
“He didn’t quite finish high school,” his mother said. “He had to help support the family. I’ve been a widow 17 years and there were six children. He joined the Navy at 17.
“He said he and Joyce Ann did everything together—even to washing the dishes and making the beds. They walked everywhere together.”
And they were gunned down together on a beachfront patio.
