Eugene “Gene” Dockery was born 10 May 1922, Conasauga, Polk County, Tennessee, the son of William Dockery and Maggie May Dockery.
Died 26 October 1941
Eugene Dockery was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He died after a motor accident at Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee. At Foust street he crashed into a car travelling in the opposite direction. He was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia at the time of his death.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 27 October 1941
Two traffic fatalities were recorded on Chattanooga streets within a seven-hour space last night as Private Eugene Dockery, 18-yar-old Fort Oglethorpe soldier, was crushed to death in a motorcycle-automobile collision on Rossville boulevard, and 60-year-old Chris Martin, of 2414 Sidney street, died from injuries received when he walked into the side of a moving station wagon on South Broad street.
Private Dockery, a member of Headquarters troop, Sixth cavalry, died while attempting to elude a pursuing police car driven by Traffic Patrolman T.B. Williams. The young soldier and a companion, Private Charles C. Clark, 18, also of Headquarters troop, Sixth cavalry, were riding “double’ on a motorcycle reportedly driven by Dockery. They were en route to Fort Oglethorpe at 12:45o’clock this morning when the traffic officer began the pursuit on Rossville boulevard at Twenty-third street. Officer Williams said the motorcycle reached a speed of more than eighty miles an hour as the race progressed. “I had my car wide open and wasn’t gaining on the motorcycle,” the officer asserted.
As the motorcycle entered a curve just south of Foust street, its high rate of speed prevented a proper turn and the cycle crashed head-on into a automobile driven by Walter V. Jernigan, 44, textile worker, who lives in an apartment at Forty-eight street and Rossville boulevard. Dockery was instantly killed, Clark received fractures of the left leg and arm and Miss Aline McDonald, 19, of 1901 South Kelley street, a passenger in the automobile, was slightly injured. Jernigan was booked on a technical charge of manslaughter. A Henson-Wallace ambulance took the soldiers to Erlanger hospital. Miss McDonald was taken to the hospital in a Bryan ambulance. The body of Private Dockery was removed to Turner Brothers Funeral home. Funeral plans will be announced.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 28 October 1941
Funeral services for Eugene Dockery, age 19, who was killed in a motorcycle accident early yesterday morning, will be held this afternoon at 2:30 from the Liberty Baptist church with the Rev. Mr. Parks officiating. He is survived by his mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. Haskell Harris; three half-brothers, Ralph and Junior Harris and Arthur Norris; two half-sisters, Louise and Jo Ann Harris, all of Consauga, Tenn. Interment in the Liberty Cemetery.
- Rank: Private
- Date of birth: 10 May 1922
- Date of death: 26 October 1941
- County: Polk
- Hometown: Consauga
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: Headquarters troop, Sixth cavalry
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Liberty Baptist Cemetery, Tennga, Murray County, Georgia
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XVI, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Eugene Dockery
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