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Charles Partin was born and raised in Jessamine County on a farm south of Nicholasville. Within two months after graduating from Nicholasville High School in the spring, he was drafted into the United States Army to serve in World War II. 

Today, Partin is looking for any World War II Veterans born and raised in Jessamine County. He especially wants to see if people he was friends with or went to school with who were also drafted or enlisted for WWII are still around today. His phone number is 850-885-5352, and his email is Cppartin50@gmail.com. 

Before Partin’s physical examination, he attended Transylvania University for a quarter. But once he passed the physical, it was time to start basic training. He said he had no feelings about being drafted, “It was just what you did. I suspect that people today would object to that strenuously. That’s just what I was supposed to do: submit to authority. That’s all. When you got out of high school and could meet a physical, you would be drafted.”

In 1945, Partin was sent to Camp Addleberry, Indiana, and then to Fort Lee, Virginia, to complete his basic training. While in basic training, he was put into the 458th Amphibious Truck Company. He drove and maintained DUKWs (“ducks”)– six-wheeled trucks with inflatable tires that drive into the water to become boats. “You could use that to get on the sand or the mud,” Partin said. He was trained as a DUKW driver and mechanic for the Army. 

The 458th amphibious truck company moved around the country to different locations before Partin was sent to the Aleutian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands off the coast of Alaska. “It was as cold as the dickens. The wind would blow,” Partin said. He wore an insulated suit for the cold with boots and a face cover you could remove. 

Partin was stationed in different places on the islands, including Kiska and Attu. With his DUKWs, which would emerge from Landing Ship Transporters with food in the bow, Partin was tasked with transporting troops and supplies. He said the troops were to “clear out the Japanese, the ones who were still there. There were still some holdouts.” Partin said the troops would come down ropes from the side of the LST and into the cargo base of the DUKW and take them ashore. Then, the DUKW would go back to the LST to refill supplies. 

After two years in the Army, Partin returned to Jessamine County and went back to Transylvania University on the GI Bill. “Ahh, boy, that was great. In a sense, it was free,” Partin said. For his time in the service, the GI paid Partin’s tuition, covered his books, and provided a small stipend. He still had to come up with the rest of his living expenses throughout college. He drove about 94 miles daily as a school bus driver in Fayette County. Also, he worked at the YWCA Cafeteria with his late older brother, Harry. On each shift, they were able to eat a free meal. 

“I’m just a rural country boy who grew up out here on a farm, and I was drafted in the service and I went to Transylvania University on the GI bill. It’s a wonderful thing.” 

As a kid, Partin remembered working at a store that accepted vouchers for things in short supply during the Great Depression, like butter, sugar, and tires. “But, you know, the only good thing I can think about WWII is that the economy picked up—it really did.”

He and his brother also worked hard on the family farm growing up. They worked in a tobacco field in the hottest time of year. “Sweat was running down every which way. My brother said, ‘Charles, we’re not cut out for this. We need to get an education and get away from this farm!’ And that’s what we did,” Partin said.

Harry studied at Transylvania University as well and went to the University of Chicago’s Disciples Divinity House seminary, where he became a minister. He ended up teaching religion at Duke University. After finishing his four years at Transylvania, Partin graduated, majoring in economics and business administration. Partin had a successful career with First Security Bank and Trust Co., where he eventually was promoted to first vice president and senior auditor. 

At 97, he still lives in Nicholasville, in the same home his father-in-law built around 1951 for him and his wife, Marjorie Reynolds. His wife had grown up in the house behind his current home. At one point, the whole mile radius was family, Partin said. 

Partin had been friends with Marjorie since childhood. He spoke of listening to records with her at her parent’s house. “We were going together, you might say,” Partin said, referencing his early teens, “she got this other fella. His name was Buddy Tanner. She kind of got to thinking about him, see. At some point there, she took this record called friendship. And she broke the record over my head and said, ‘I’m breaking up our friendship!'” but despite this teenage melodrama, when Partin had returned to Jessamine County on furlough after his basic training, Partin saw Marjorie driving on Main Street and the two reunited. As he was walking out of the Nicholasville drug store, “She waved at me to come over to the car, and that started a new romance. I was looking good in my uniform,” he said. The two married in 1950 and had three sons together. Two of them live in Lexington, and one in Clearwater, Florida. All three of them are engineers. Partin said he didn’t push his children to do engineering but that it was the path they all chose. He has grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and his 11-year-old grandchild is also looking to go into engineering and will attend a magnet school in Lexington.

Partin lost Marjorie in 2020 to COPD. She has been buried at Camp Nelson in the very front of the cemetery, with a space for Charles to be buried next to her. 

They had 69 years together, and he said it was “absolutely a blessing,” and he misses his wife terribly. 

He does have a few different women who visit Charles in his home and keep him company and assist him, including Vickie, who’s there six days a week in the mornings; Miss Emma, who comes in the afternoons; and Valina, a friend from his parish at St. Luke Catholic Church. “And my sons living in Lexington support me and come down often. So I can’t complain,” he said. 

“Charles has a very good support system at his age that allows him to still be in his home and stay where he’s familiar and comfortable. I tell Charles that, with his age, he has five stars in my book compared to other people I’ve seen who cannot be in their homes. I feel he lived a very simple yet amazing life,” Valina said. “Charles is extremely intelligent, extremely knowledgeable. Everything he talks about has worth, has value, and is something you can take away. Charles has touched many people’s lives. He is genuinely a very genuine person. He’s a straight shooter; what he says, he means it, and he’s a wonderful person to have in your life.”