Words by Marla Price | Images by Al Blanton and courtesy of Leigh Mayberry
A Teacher’s Gift
At first glance, this story begins with a search for a missing videotape, and a desire to give a Christmas present that money couldn’t possibly buy.
Mr. Jeff Cole, principal of Winston County High School, was a history teacher and coach at WCHS in the late 1990s. He had seen a photograph in the Daily Mountain Eagle featuring three veterans, along with an accompanying story noting their service. One of the veterans, Harold Humphries, had served in the Navy and had seen action at Iwo Jima.
“The story caught my eye,” recalled Mr. Cole, “because I was about to be teaching Iwo Jima, and I had been heavily researching the topic.” The article noted that Mr. Humphries was a member of Edgil Grove Baptist Church. Mr. Cole reached out to some friends who also attended the church, and he connected with Mr. Humphries who accepted the invitation to speak.
The day of the visit, the videotape was rolling: “It was one of those big recorders,” remembered Mr. Cole, “sitting on a tripod. I say, ‘Mr. Humphries, I’m going to hand this over to you,’ and he pauses for several seconds before he says, ‘I’ve never told this to my wife or my family’.”
Mr. Harold Humphries then recounted his service to his country during World War II.
Mr. Cole made a copy of the videotape and gave it to Mr. Humphries as a gesture of appreciation, and Mr. Cole remembered watching the tape several times before placing it in storage.
Mr. Cole was always impressed by the way his students responded whenever special guests told their stories. “I’ve had bankers and business people speak, but no one had near the impact that the veterans did on my students,” said Mr. Cole. “I didn’t have any better days teaching.”
It was last fall that Mr. Cole thought of the veteran and the long-forgotten tape, after finding some mementos that reminded him of that interview. “The thought crossed my mind that the person is probably not still alive.” However, Mr. Cole did not recall the name of the special guest who had visited his classroom almost thirty years ago.
“I wanted to find the videotape by Christmas,” declared Mr. Cole. He planned to learn the veteran’s name, track down the veteran’s family, and give the tape to them as a present.
A Veteran’s Story
Mr. Humphries’s story started much earlier than the day he visited Mr. Cole’s history class.
Harold Porter Humphries was born in 1925, the son of a farming family that grew to include nine boys and two girls. The family homesteaded in Black Pond and tenant-farmed in Bear Creek. When the U.S. entered World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy on December 2, 1943. Holding the rank of coxswain, Mr. Humphries was a crewmember of the USS LSM-207, assisting with the operation and piloting of the ship. LSMs, or Landing Ship Mediums, were used in World War II to transport equipment, such as tanks, trucks, and artillery, along with large numbers of soldiers.
LSM-207 arrived at Iwo Jima on February 19, 1944, four days after the invasion. Mr. Humphries and his crewmembers, along with the Marines they carried, remained on Iwo Jima until the island was secured on March 16.
Mr. Humphries continued on board LSM-207, island-hopping on the return trip to the United States, and he was honorably discharged on January 19, 1946. Mr. Humphries and his wife, Carlene, whom he had married in the backseat of a car before he had left for basic training, then built a life together. Mr. Humphries worked as a carpenter, and he and his wife eventually raised their granddaughter, Leigh Humphries Mayberry.
“Papa never told us much, but he started talking more after speaking at local schools,” said Mrs. Mayberry. He had told of being physically stronger at boot camp because of his farming work, whereas some soldiers were initially unable to carry 50 pounds of equipment. He had also recounted that LSM-207 had been hit by friendly fire, but the soldiers had been taught to take the officers’ mattresses for protection, because they were thicker.
Mrs. Mayberry also heard stories through attending veteran reunions with her grandparents. The first flag to be raised on Iwo Jima had come from “Papa’s ship,” as Mrs. Mayberry fondly recalled, but that flag was deemed too small. A second flag was secured, and it was that final flag-raising that was enshrined for posterity by photographer Joe Rosenthal. Mrs. Mayberry said learning that the first flag had come from her grandfather’s ship was one of the most interesting things she had learned through attending veteran reunions, and they were able to meet the wife of the first photographer, Mr. Louis R. Lowery.
A Family’s Treasure
Mrs. Mayberry reminisced: “Before Granny had passed away, she gave me a box of memorabilia,” stating that there was a video of an interview where “Papa had talked at some school.” However, Granny had warned her that Papa had gotten emotional in the video, which, to Mrs. Mayberry’s memory, had only happened twice: when his mother died, and when Mrs. Mayberry’s husband, Mike, had given him a book on Iwo Jima.
Gripped with grief after Papa’s passing, Mrs. Mayberry felt that she could not watch the video, and instead, she and her husband housed all the memorabilia and other items in a storage unit in Kentucky. They sold most of their belongings, bought an Airstream, and worked as travel nurses, serving diverse people groups. Mrs. Mayberry has worked with the Inupiat in Alaska, living above the Arctic Circle, and has also cared for the Navajo in Arizona after being inspired by the heroics of the Navajo code talkers in World War II.
Mrs. Mayberry and her husband moved back to Alabama in 2018, but the memorabilia remained in Kentucky. She continued working as a nurse, but after the significant challenges of the pandemic, she decided to change careers. After applying for roles in several school districts, she was hired as a science teacher at Double Springs Middle School at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
Mrs. Mayberry and her husband finally decided to reclaim their belongings from the storage unit toward the end of last year. Her first goal was to find a videotape of their wedding in anticipation of their 30th anniversary. However, she stumbled across Papa’s interview tape that her Granny had told her about, and she finally decided it was time to watch it. “But first, we had to find a VCR,” Mrs. Mayberry chuckled.
“I put in the tape, and to hear his voice again and see his mannerisms, everything that a photograph can’t capture, I cannot tell you what that meant to me,” said Mrs. Mayberry proudly. Describing how her Papa continued to give glory to the Lord throughout the interview, Mrs. Mayberry stated, with tears in her eyes, “It was the best gift.”
God’s Perfect Timing: The Story Comes Full Circle
Mrs. Mayberry was also about to get a clue as to which school her Papa had visited. She told her husband, “I think Papa was at Double Springs, I think he was at Winston County High School, and I think that teacher is now the principal.”
The unmistakable voice of the teacher, unseen on the camera, belonged to none other than Jeff Cole.
Mr. Cole said, “When I saw Mrs. Mayberry coming into my office, on the last day before Christmas break, my first thought was, what has a middle schooler done in the lunchroom?”
Instead, Mrs. Mayberry asked if Mr. Cole had ever had veterans speak to his students. When he said yes, she pressed with another detail: did he ever have an Iwo Jima veteran in his classroom?
As Mrs. Mayberry shared the beginnings of her grandfather’s story, Mr. Cole realized what was happening. In his mind, he still had a week until Christmas, and he was determined to find that videotape. Now, he didn’t have to.
Mr. Cole and Mrs. Mayberry prefer to think that God delivered that Christmas present and that it wasn’t just a mere coincidence. They both insist that it all seems like a dream, asking if it really happened like that, how the story found its way home, when it was really home all along. Mrs. Mayberry expressed, “Of all the places I could have found a job, it was here, where Papa did that interview.”
For Mr. Cole, the rediscovery affirmed why he invited stories into his classrooms—because the best history isn’t written in textbooks; it’s told through the experiences of real people like Harold Humphries. For Mrs. Mayberry, it was a reminder that her grandfather’s story will continue to teach others, not only about courage and service, but about the power of love and remembrance.
In the end, it is also a confirmation that God’s timing is perfect, and that even stories long tucked away can find their way back home when the heart is ready to receive them. 67
