Kenneth Lane Henderson

Kenneth Lane Henderson. Image Source: Ancestry.com

Kenneth Lane Henderson was born in Alpine, Texas, on December 26, 1921, the eldest child and only son of Dr. Elisha Lane “E. L.” Henderson (1884-1990) and his wife, Sula Aurora Henderson (1887-1984). His father joined the ECTC faculty in 1924, first as a history professor and then as director of the training schools and practice teaching. As a young child, Henderson was a campus darling: he was the “mascot” for the Class of 1925, and a full page in the Tecoan highlighted this, with the four-year-old pictured in academic regalia. The following year, when Professor Herbert Austin’s daughter was engaged, the young Henderson, “adorable” dressed in a white satin suit, brought the bride-to-be presents in a small purple and gold wheelbarrow. Even as Henderson matured, he remained popular on campus: in 1936, when he became an Eagle Scout, it was front-page news in the Teco Echo.

Henderson graduated from Greenville High School in 1938. During his high school years, he was the center of facetious entries referring to his “sailor’s vocabulary” and gangster ways, comically inverting his clean-cut, good-humored popularity. Henderson studied at ECTC before transferring to the University of North Carolina. Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, in July 1942, he enlisted at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, and subsequently trained with Company D, First Paratroop Training Regiment, Fort Benning, Georgia in 1942-1943, becoming an Army paratrooper and demolitionist in the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.

Henderson’s overseas duty began in May 1943, with action in Sicily and Italy fighting Mussolini’s Fascist forces there, prior to taking part in the Allied invasion of France driving out Hitler’s Nazi regime. In Germany, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was in the Allied drive across the Rhine, going deep into the remnants of Third Reich. Henderson’s last letter to his parents was dated two days before he was reported missing in action.

Complicating matters for the young paratrooper was that in July 1944, the ECTC board of trustees dismissed his father, Dr. Herbert Rebarker, and M. L. Wright, from the ECTC faculty for “inciting students to insurrection and creating unwholesome influences on campus.” The charges grew out of Henderson’s role in students protesting the board’s decision to declare Dr. Leon Meadows, former president of the school, exonerated of charges of misusing more than $18,000.00 in college funds. Meadows was later convicted and sent to prison, but Henderson, dismissed just 13 days before he was eligible for retirement, was treated disgracefully by the ECTC board of trustees and the State of North Carolina. It is not clear whether Paratrooper Henderson knew the full details of his father’s dismissal.

On April 5, 1945, during his regiment’s action along the Rhine, Henderson, 23, was reported missing in action. Reports soon established that he had been killed in action. A month later, Germany surrendered, making Henderson’s sacrifice both a meaningful contribution to the end of the war in Europe and a tragic chapter in its conclusion.

A gravestone at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, Netherlands, honors Henderson’s ultimate service in the line of duty. He was awarded, posthumously, the Purple Heart.

Sources:

• “Addresses Of Service Alumni Gathered By Association.” Teco Echo. December 11, 1942. Pp. 1, 4. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37912
• Army portrait. From Ancestry.com
• “Board Stands Firm In Firing Three Teachers At E.C.T.C.: Rebaker, Henderson, Wright Get Second Hearing On Charge of Inciting Students.” Durham Morning Herald. July 19, 1944. P. 3.
• “Cpl. K. L. Henderson Missing In Germany.” News and Observer. April 27, 1945. P. 11.
• “Dr. Henderson Receives Honor.” Rocky Mount Telegram. June 23, 1983. P. 1.
• “E. L. Henderson Elected To Head Scout Committee … Kenneth Lane Henderson Holds Highest Awards.” Teco Echo. November 19, 1936. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38047
• E. L. Henderson Oral History Interview, Part III, December 7, 1981. University Archives # UA60.02.122. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/63080
• Green Lights (Greenville High School Yearbook). 1938. Pp. 6, 11, 14. https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/37835?ln=en
• “Kenneth L. Henderson.” American Battle Monuments Commission. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/henderson%3Dkenneth-0
• “Kenneth Lane Henderson.” Tecoan. 1927. P. 37. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15332
• “Kenneth Lane Henderson Is Honored At Assembly: Son of Dr. and Mrs. E. L. Henderson Receives Highest Boy Scout Award.” Teco Echo. October 13, 1936. P. 3. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38044
• “Many Entertain For the Seniors … Kenneth Lane Henderson Entertains Seniors.” Teco Echo. May 31, 1927. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37832
• “Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Henderson Give Shower For Priscilla Austin.” Teco Echo. June 11, 1926. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37814
• “Nephew of Mrs. C. L. Thompson Killed.” Canyon News. May 31, 1945. P. 1.
• Overseas American Cemeteries: Kenneth L. Henderson. https://www.wwiimemorial.com/registry/plaque_cemetery.aspx?HonoreeID=672695
• “Service Men.” Teco Echo. April 10, 1942. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37904
• “With The Armed Forces.” Teco Echo. July 9, 1943. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37924
• Yackety Yack, 1942 (UNC yearbook). P. 124. Junior year photo.
• https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/27391?ln=en#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=-1850%2C-186%2C6120%2C3718

Related Materials

Kenneth Lane Henderson. Image Source: Tecoan, 1927. UA50-01. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Kenneth Lane Henderson. Image Source: Green Lights, 1938. Greenville High School Yearbook.

Kenneth Lane Henderson. Image Source: Yackety Yack, 1942. University of North Carolina Yearbook.

Kenneth Lane Henderson’s Draft Registration Card. Image Source: U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Ancestry.com.

“Kenneth L. Henderson.” American Battle Monuments Commission. Image Source: American Battle Monuments Commission.

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