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Major General Gillespie V Sonny Montgomery

Male 1920 - 2006  (85 years)


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  • Name Gillespie V Sonny Montgomery  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17] 
    Prefix Major General 
    Birth 5 Aug 1920  Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17] 
    Gender Male 
    CMSI Member 0020/ Find all individuals with events at this location  [5] 
    Residence 1930  Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [9] 
    Residence 1 Apr 1940  Greenwood, Leflore, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [10, 13] 
    Military 10 Feb 1943  Camp Shelby/Hattiesburg, Forrest, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [13] 
    Occupation Between 1967 and 1997  US House of Representatives/Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 11, 15] 
    Reference Number CMS 00020 
    Family Search ID L24K-X1G 
    Family Search Link https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L24K-X1G 
    Burial 2006  Magnolia Cemetery/Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [8, 16, 17] 
    Death 12 May 2006  Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17] 
    Person ID I56423  Clan Montgomery
    Last Modified 25 Aug 2016 

    Father Gillespie Montgomery,   b. 9 Jul 1895, Clarksdale, Coahoma, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aug 1929, Starkville, Oktibbeha, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 34 years) 
    Mother Frances Emily Jones,   b. 11 Apr 1899, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 2 Dec 1987, Jackson, Hinds, Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 88 years) 
    Marriage 28 Sep 1916  Mississippi, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F19788  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 5 Aug 1920 - Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1930 - Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 12 May 2006 - Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Notes 
    • A Tribute to Sonny Montgomery from the Internet:
      Born and reared in Meridian, Mississippi, Sonny Montgomery's early life helped set the course for a distinguished career. His father died at an early age when his only child was just 10. Sonny and his mother struggled like other familes during the Depression, but he had an otherwise normal life growing up in the Magnolia State. He spent his sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school at a military preparatory school in Chattanooga, graduating in 1939 from the McCallie School.
      Sonny enrolled in Mississippi State College to pursue a degree in business. There -- at an institution his great-grandfather, Col. W.B. Montgomery, had helped establish decades earlier -- Sonny furthered his military skills in the ROTC and gained his first taste of politics. Following in the footsteps of the legendary John C. Stennis, who had preceded him at Mississippi State by 20 years, Sonny was elected both president of the student body and "Mr. Mississippi State."

      Obituary from the New York Times:
      G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery, Former Congressman, 85, Dies Top of Form 1
      Bottom of Form 1

      Published: May 13, 2006
      Former Representative G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi who was a staunch voice for the military and the needs of veterans during his 30 years in Congress, died yesterday in his hometown, Meridian. He was 85.
      His death, of natural causes, came six months after surgery for a bowel obstruction, said Ann Weddington, a spokeswoman for the Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center.
      From 1967 through 1997, and particularly during his 13 years as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Mr. Montgomery championed legislation that increased veterans' eligibility for home loans, life insurance and medical coverage. In 1988, he was co-sponsor of the law that transformed the Veterans Administration into the 14th cabinet department in the federal government.
      "Veterans will no longer have to go through the back door to the White House," he said at the time.
      What he considered his "signature achievement in Congress," said Kyle Steward, his legislative director for 15 years, was passage of a law expanding the G.I. Bill, the 1944 legislation credited with elevating a generation of working-class veterans into the middle class by opening their opportunities to higher education.
      The so-called Montgomery G.I. Education Bill, which President Ronald Reagan signed in 1984, "enhanced education benefits for active-duty military personnel and extended those benefits to National Guard and Reserve members," Mr. Steward said. "And it was seen at the time as a boost for recruitment, because recruiting was lagging."
      Gillespie V. Montgomery, known as Sonny since childhood, was born on Aug. 5, 1920. After graduating in 1943 from Mississippi State College, where he was a member of the R.O.T.C., he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He soon saw action in Europe and received a Bronze Star.
      Returning to Meridian after the war, Mr. Montgomery built a successful insurance business and began his rise to the rank of major general in the Mississippi National Guard. In 1956, he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate. Ten years later, he successfully ran for Congress.
      In 1981, he became chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, while also serving as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. He worked consistently to obtain money for the military.
      Describing himself as a conservative Democrat, Mr. Montgomery was a leading sponsor in 1989 of a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would have banned the burning of the American flag.
      "If we don't do something," he said at the time, "I fear that Americans, and especially veterans groups, are going to stop the desecration of the flag in their own way, and people are going to get hurt." The proposal failed, after a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas law against defacing the flag.
      The next year, Mr. Montgomery led a Congressional delegation to North Korea, where, for the first time since 1954, the Communist government there turned over the remains of service members killed in the Korean War.
      Mr. Montgomery, who never married, was an only child and leaves no immediate survivors.
      At a lean, athletic 6-foot-2, he was a good friend, and tennis opponent, of the first President Bush. Last year, the current President Bush awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

      Also see tribute in CMSI News Magazine, The Gardien, Vol. 25, No. 3 published Summer 2006.

  • Sources 
    1. [S544] Bio info on Montgomery Gillespie V, (Name: Wikipedia;).

    2. [S543] Gardien Newsletter, (Name: Clan Montgomery Society International;), Vol 6 No 1 Mar 1986 pages 6-7 G V 'Sonny' Montgomery (Reliability: 0).

    3. [S543] Gardien Newsletter, (Name: Clan Montgomery Society International;), Vol 06 No 1 Mar 1986 pages 6-7 G V 'Sonny' Montgomery (Reliability: 0).

    4. [S2414] Ancestry.com, Social Security Death Index, (Name: Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; D ate:2007;;), Issue State: Mississippi; Issue Date: Before 1951 (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V. Montgomery

    5. [S160] CMSI Member, CMSI 0020 (Reliability: 0).

    6. [S398] Ancestry.com, Social Security Death Index, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2011;), Issue State: Mississippi; Issue Date: Before 1951 (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V. Montgomery

    7. [S528] Ancestry.com, United States Obituary Collection, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), Newspaper: Meridian Star, The; Publication Date: 17 8 2006;Publication Place: Meridian, MS, US (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V. Montgomery

    8. [S2547] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1700s-Current, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2 012;) (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V. Montgomery

    9. [S2376] Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 200 2;), Year: 1930; Census Place: Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi; Roll:1153; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0006; Image: 244.0; FHLmicrofilm: 2340888 (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie Montgomery

    10. [S531] Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;), Year: 1940; Census Place: Greenwood, Leflore, Mississippi; Roll:T627_2043; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 42-22 (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie Montgomery

    11. [S545] Ancestry.com, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data - United States. Congress. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2005.Original data: United States;) (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V. (Sonny) Montgomery

    12. [S2320] Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2 015;) (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V Montgomery

    13. [S410] National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2005;) (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Gillespie V Montgomery

    14. [S1565] Montgomery, Professor George, The Montgomery Syndrome, (Name: Scottish Workshop Publications; Location: Edinburgh, Midlothain, Scotland; Date: 2015;), Chapter 22 - Honesty is the Best Politics Pages 195-199 (Reliability: 0).

    15. [S543] Gardien Newsletter, (Name: Clan Montgomery Society International;), Vol 25 No 3 Jun 2006 pages 1,5 Gillespie V Sonny Montgomery (Reliability: 0).

    16. [S1669] Magnolia Cemetery, (Name: Findagrave; Location: Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, USA;).

    17. [S815] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;) (Reliability: 0).
      Record for Emily Jones Tims


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