Jennifer Whitlock
Around two months ago, James Bennett, who owns Lost & Found Antiques and Collectibles in Lexington, tore down a house in Taliaferro County and found several personal items.
The collection included letters and a custom military jacket for a small child, from Larry Vinson, who served in the Vietnam War.
Bennett put the jacket and the rest of the items into a shadow box and gave it to Pinnacle Bank, which displayed it in the lobby of the Lexington branch.
After hearing about the lost items in the May 25 issue of The Oglethorpe Echo, Lexington resident Jennifer Whitlock became interested in finding the owners of the items.
“I texted a friend of mine who works for (Pinnacle Bank) and said, ‘Can you guys send me some close ups of what’s actually in there?’ So I (would have) more than just a name,” Whitlock said.
Whitlock began looking up “Vinson” in property records and found a deed of trust in 1974 for Vinson’s children.
Whitlock then went to Find a Grave and searched for records for a person with the last name “Vinson” who died around that time.
She found that Larry Vinson had died in December of 1973, and discovered a newspaper clipping detailing that he died in a car accident in nearby Washington.
By using property records, Whitlock found both of Vinson’s children on Facebook and connected with them to set up a time for the family to retrieve their items.
Whitlock picked up the items from Bennett and met with Tracie Vinson Smith late last month to give her the items.
Smith, Larry Vinson’s daughter who lives in the Greene County town of Veazey, is glad to have the items. She doesn’t remember her father, but her brother, Larry, does.
She was 18 months old and Larry was 3 years old when their father died.
Smith said it is “extra special” to her brother being that the jacket was made for him judging by the size of it and because he remembers his dad more.
“(It’s) extra special to me, too, because it was my dad, and I thought (my parents) had a sweet love story, and it’s sad that he went to Vietnam, and things were bad and they didn’t think he was coming back,” Smith said. “And then he comes back and he gets killed in a car accident in Wilkes County. It was kind of weird, but sad.”
Bennett found the items in Smith’s maternal grandmother’s old house.
“I don’t know how in the world or where my grandma hid it,” Smith said.
Smith is appreciative of Bennett, an Army veteran, for finding the items.
“He seemed to have known what it was,” Smith said. “He seemed to have known the timeframe, and I appreciate him keeping it and doing that. It means a lot to our family.”