WINNSBORO – Rev. Jerry Blevins from Muncie, Indiana called the Fairfield County Museum several weeks ago, seeking information on the final resting place of Master Sgt. Archie Carnell who Blevins had served with in Vietnam in the 1960’s.
“I made a few phone calls,” said Museum Director Pelham Lyles, “and was able to put Sgt Carnell’s great niece, Donna Carnell Arnold, in touch with Rev. Blevins.
“I learned from Ms. Arnold that the Carnell family had come here from KY in the early 1900s to work in the Winnsboro textile mill, later called Uniroyal. Sgt. Carnell had been a Vietnam veteran, and his brothers and other family members were all military men – his father was a WWII veteran.”
A few days later, Rev. Blevins, his wife and daughter traveled from Indiana to Winnsboro where they visited his former comrade’s hometown and the mill village where he had grown up.
While in Winnsboro over the Veterans Day holiday, the Blevins family visited Sgt. Carnell’s grave in the Royal Pines cemetery where Rev. Blevins placed a wreath.
“It was an emotional visit,” Lyles said. “But Rev. Blevins was at peace after the visit and said he wished he had made the pilgrimage long before now.”
