Medal for a Son

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"Medal for a Son"

Mrs. Laura Francis Lummus receives the Medal of Honor awarded to her son. Presenting the nation’s highest award in the name of the Congress of the United States is Admiral Clark. At the moment Clark fastened the clasp joining the two ends of the ribbon holding the Medal, Johnny Hayes, staff photographer of the Dallas Times Herald, snapped the award winning photograph entitled "Medal for a Son."

"Medal for a Son" took first place as outstanding feature picture of the year in addition to the grand award for the outstanding news photo of 1946 published in Associated Press newspapers of Texas. J. Sutton Steffan, picture editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who was a judge in the news picture contest said, “A grand award, in the opinion of the judges, should go to ‘Medal for a Son’ an outstanding study. The photographer has captured in the face of this mother fierce pride and tragic sorrow, the vital elements of the ceremony.”

On January 20, 1947 Mrs. Lily M. Russell, Director of Public Relations, Baylor University, wrote Johnny Hayes requesting a 16" X 20" print of "Medal for a Son."

Mrs. Russell wrote, "Your picture "Medal for a Son" will hang among our treasured relics of World War II in the Texas History Collection, Baylor University."

On Friday, June 13, 1947 an article, "Prize Photo of Jack Lummus' Mother Shown in Pat Neff Hall," appeared in The Daily Lariat, Baylor University's student newspaper.

The article read, "'Medal for a Son,' a picture of Mrs. Laura Lummus as she received the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to her son, Lt. Jack Lummus, is now on display in the east wing of the first floor of Pat Neff Hall.

"A former football star at Baylor and later with the professional New York Giants, Lummus … his picture is hanging beside that of his mother's.

"The picture of another Baylor man to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award is displayed just to the left of the former two. He is Col. John R. (Killer) Kane, '28 who led the raid on the Ploesti oil fields of Rumania in August of 1943. He received his award on a cricket field in Cairo shortly after the raid, where the picture was taken."

The three photographs were displayed as a group until removed from Pat Neff Hall, and returned to the Texas History Collection in Carroll Library at Baylor University.

Presenting a Medal of Honor Reading MOH Citation Reception After MOH Service

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