Lawrence Kevin Driscoll

by Denyce Cribbs

In looking through our library’s surname files last summer, I came across a folder that had just two items in it.  One was a USN Certificate of Honorable Discharge from 1946, and the second was a Funeral Mass booklet from 1962.  Both were for Lawrence Kevin Driscoll.  I decided to find out what I could about him and his family.

I was able to find Lawrence on Ancestry, and his records showed that he had been a Navy coxswain in WWII, which I learned meant that he was one of the pilots of landing craft.  He had also earned the WWII Victory Medal, as evidenced by his headstone application for veterans.  A WWII muster roll listed him as serving on the USS LST-815 in March of 1945.  According to NavSource Online (https://www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/160815.htm) the LST-815 was at the invasion beaches at Okinawa on D-Day. I happened to be working on this surname file on July 4^th, so I was very moved to have discovered Lawrence’s service and be able to honor him here.  

  

Next, I found a page in his Funeral Mass booklet listing his family.  His parents were John and Agnes Driscoll.  I wanted to find out more about John, and I’ll talk more about that in my next posting.  Lawrence has siblings listed as John, Patricia, and Therese.  His wife was Margaret, and his children were Diane and Larry. In following the Ancestry records, I was able to see that Larry Jr. had lived in Lake Havasu City, and is buried in Kingman, AZ.  It is through him that our library surely attained the discharge certificate and Mass booklet.  Lawrence’s other child, Diane, has also passed away.  The Mass booklet contains pages of signatures from his loved ones, many signing #5220 next to their names, to signify the VFW post that Lawrence belonged to in Illinois.  Notably, one comrade, Ben Babbitt, signed “96465 Normandy” next to his signature.  Thank you to all those fine men who served with Lawrence Kevin Driscoll.