Kennedy: No looking over this 4-leaf clover

Five Hooie brothers served their country in wartime, and all five carried the same four-leaf clover.
Five Hooie brothers served their country in wartime, and all five carried the same four-leaf clover.

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Five Hooie brothers from Pulaski, Tenn., served their country in wartime. All five returned home safely.

The common thread was a laminated four-leaf clover passed down from brother to brother over a span of time that lasted from the early years of World War II in the 1940s to the Vietnam War era in the mid-1960s.

The last living Hooie brother, David Hooie, who now lives in Miami, Fla., sat down with us this week to tell the story while visiting his sister, Frances Newton, of Tyner, Tenn.

David placed the four-leaf clover, now brown with age, on Frances' kitchen table along with a photo of him and his four brothers, Leldon, Paul, Billy and Hillard, who was known to all as "Bud."

By 1942, the U.S. military had grown to almost 4 million service people, and World War II's Pacific theater was becoming engulfed in fighting.

That was the year Martin and Vurta Hooie, of Pulaski, watched their oldest son, Leldon, go off to war in the Pacific. Martin was a farmer who became a factory worker and Vurta was a housewife. In 1942, Pulaski had a population of about 5,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Interestingly, 1942 was also the year Vurta gave birth to her last child, David, the youngest of five Hooie brothers. (Frances was the only girl sibling.)

Vurta was no doubt wracked with worry about her firstborn child going to war. As an act of gentle encouragement, Vurta picked a four-leaf clover from her yard and gave it to Leldon before he left for basic training.

photo The last living Hooie family brother, David Hooie, who now lives in Miami, Fla., sat down with us this week to tell the story while visiting his sister, Frances Newton, of Tyner. Five Hooie brothers served their country in wartime, and all five carried the same four-leaf clover.

"She probably worried herself to death like any mother would," David says.

It's estimated that about one-in-10,000 clovers have four leaves, and they have been symbols of good luck for generations. The song "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" was a No. 1 record in the 1940s.

First-born Leldon would eventually fight at the Battle of Iwo Jima, his siblings say. He made it through unscathed in a battle with an estimated 26,000 American casualties.

Still, the four-leaf-clover's work had just begun. By the 1960s, the little clover - encased in plastic - had passed to each Hooie brother.

Each time the brother-to-brother pass-off message was simple, says David: "Take it, and bring it back home."

Leldon passed it to Paul, who was two years his junior and served in the Navy in the Mediterranean Sea during World War II.

Paul passed it to Billy, who was a World War II-era airplane mechanic.

Billy passed it to "Bud," who served in the Army in the Korean War era.

And Billy passed it to David, who was stationed in Korea during the 1960s as part of the support command for the Vietnam War.

Like many men of their generation, the brothers didn't talk much about their wartime experiences. Then, abruptly, four of the brothers died in a five-year span earlier this decade.

It is telling that none of the spouses of the Hooie brothers, except David's wife Adrienne, apparently ever knew about the four-leaf clover story.

For his part, David says he keeps the clover in a box at his home. He is not sure if his children will want the family artifact when he dies.

Still, he did his family duty.

He took it, and he brought it back - an emblem of one family's uncommon service to country and the power of a mother's love.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy @timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.

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