Historical Society Seeks To ID WWII Soldiers

The McDonald County Historical Society is attempting to collect the names of World War II soldiers that match a group of photos recently donated to the organization.

Board Chair Lynn Tatum said the project all goes back to Bonnibel Sweet, who owned and operated Brown’s Sundries in Pineville from 1929 to 1978 with her sister Jean.

“They had a fountain, served Coke and ice cream and shakes, but also provided a kind of home away from home for school kids. They would stop and do their homework, and Bonnibel was like a mom to them, a second mom. We think of her as a servant leader. She provided inspiration to all of us. We honor her in the 1950s drugstore in the museum,” Tatum said.

She said when World War II started and all of the young people who had been stopping at her store went off to war, she gave many of them a silver dollar so they would have a token from home and know

someone was thinking about them. Many of them sent her photos and wrote to her, so she started an album. The album was recently donated to the historical society by her grandson, Michael Goodman, Tatum said.

“It’s a treasure and it’s wonderful we have it,” she said. However, of 120 photographs, only seven were identified.

“We have 113 that we are putting up on Facebook to hopefully get help from the community to restore this precious piece of history. Without their names, it’s a little difficult to properly restore their history. We’re asking people to help us identify them,” she said.

A few have already been identified through the Facebook page, she said. The historical society hopes by spring to have an exhibit, probably to be located in the military room downstairs in the museum.

“We’re hoping we have a good group we can honor and remember. We’ re inspired by this beautiful woman that took care of children and took care of veterans and helped people for so long, and we’re grateful to her grandson,” Tatum said.

She also noted Sweet’s granddaughter, Donna Lou Goodman, helped the historical society create the 1950s drugstore in the museum.

COURTESY PHOTO Bonnibel Sweet (right) and her sister Jean (left) ran a drugstore in Pineville, Brown’s Sundries, from 1929 to 1978. During World War II, Sweet compiled an album of soldiers from the area, and her grandson recently donated it to the McDonald County Historical Society. The organization is placing the photos on its Facebook page in hopes of matching names to the photos, as most of the soldiers were not identified in the album.