Travis Benjamin Whitaker Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0296

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The newsletters contain items of interest to the Navy troops, news about the war abroad, and events in the Pacific. The third issue is dated two days after the United States dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, August 14, 1945. Of particular interest are the columns entitled “Hirihito’s Last Imperial Words,” “Dramatic News Comes After Three Days of Tense Waiting” and “War Timetable.”

Dates

Creation: 1944-1945

Language of Materials

The collection is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical / Historical

Travis Benjamin Whitaker was born August 31, 1921 in Nacogdoches County and graduated from Cushing High School. He helped his parents John and Lizzie Whitaker run a general merchandise store in Nat, Texas. Whitaker attended SFA, but was called to duty during WWII, serving in the Pacific as a Navy corpsman. Whitaker finished his bachelor’s degree in biology at SFA when he returned home. After SFA, Whitaker attended the University of Texas Dental School in Houston. During the Korean War, he was a dentist for the Army in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Whitaker returned to Texas after his discharge and established a dental practice in Beaumont. He retired from that practice in 1989 and began a new career as a host on cruise ships. Whitaker donated the family store to The Nat Cemetery Association in 2000, which renamed the building "The Travis B. Whitaker House." Dr. Travis Benjamin Whitaker passed away on the morning of July 8, 2005. He is buried in the Nat Cemetery.

Sources:

“Travis Benjamin Whitaker.” Beaumont Enterprise, 13 July 2005.

"The Travis B. Whitaker House," Nat Cemetery Association. http://nattexas.org/Travis%20B.%20Whitaker%20House.html (Accessed 19 October 2018).

'1947 Stone Fort Yearbook' [Stephen F. Austin State University], p.35.