ROGER S. BAGNALL, 2LT, USMC
Roger Bagnall '21
Lucky Bag
From the 1921 Lucky Bag:
Roger Shaler Bagnall
Lakewood, Ohio
"Bags" "Red" "Pinky" "Savvy"
YES, 'twas late in the summer when one balmy day the W. B. and A. stopped at our front door, deposited Red on the steps, and shoved off, forgetting to give him his seventeen gun salute. If we had any doubts as to the identity of the Toledo Terrior, he soon cleared them, and now he is known from one end of Eastport to the other end of Washington. Formerly we thought that Bell was the name of the Long Distance Telephone, but Red has disproved that; for no man but the President could make so many calls and monopolize the telephone booth without being lynched by the patient waiters.
Roger sprang into the limelight when he first arrived, and the Mazdas haven't begun to dim as yet. Outside of a little trouble with the Academic Board Plebe year, and the extra duty squad Second Class year. Red has been most fortunate. Until last year Red divided his love between Cleveland, Toledo, and the B. and O., but now you couldn't move him beyond Washington with a derrick.
Red can be seen every day (morning formations excepted) posing as port running light of the 4th company.
We are all for you Red, even if you are going to desert us for the Marines.
"Gimme a dime; I gotta make a telephone call."
Buzzard; Log Staff (2, 1).
The Class of 1921 was the last of the wartime-accelerated classes. "1921A" was graduated on June 3, 1920; the second half, "1921B", was graduated on June 2, 1921. Roger was graduated with 1921B.
Roger Shaler Bagnall
Lakewood, Ohio
"Bags" "Red" "Pinky" "Savvy"
YES, 'twas late in the summer when one balmy day the W. B. and A. stopped at our front door, deposited Red on the steps, and shoved off, forgetting to give him his seventeen gun salute. If we had any doubts as to the identity of the Toledo Terrior, he soon cleared them, and now he is known from one end of Eastport to the other end of Washington. Formerly we thought that Bell was the name of the Long Distance Telephone, but Red has disproved that; for no man but the President could make so many calls and monopolize the telephone booth without being lynched by the patient waiters.
Roger sprang into the limelight when he first arrived, and the Mazdas haven't begun to dim as yet. Outside of a little trouble with the Academic Board Plebe year, and the extra duty squad Second Class year. Red has been most fortunate. Until last year Red divided his love between Cleveland, Toledo, and the B. and O., but now you couldn't move him beyond Washington with a derrick.
Red can be seen every day (morning formations excepted) posing as port running light of the 4th company.
We are all for you Red, even if you are going to desert us for the Marines.
"Gimme a dime; I gotta make a telephone call."
Buzzard; Log Staff (2, 1).
The Class of 1921 was the last of the wartime-accelerated classes. "1921A" was graduated on June 3, 1920; the second half, "1921B", was graduated on June 2, 1921. Roger was graduated with 1921B.
Loss
Roger died on September 10, 1925 in Washington, D.C. of cancer. (Information via email on February 16, 2020 from his grandson.)
Other Information
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his wife (married 1922) and son, Roger Jr. (USNA '47). (His wife remarried, to Francis McKenna '21A, who graduated in 1920.)
From his grandson via email on April 12, 2020:
1. His service record shows that his first assignment was to the Marine Barracks in Quantico, as shown on the website, but he joined that on July 10, 1921. He was detached October 1, 1922, to the Navy Yard in Washington (not in May 1923). After that the record seems mostly OK.
2. The diagnosis was sarcoma, right ilium, multiple metastases in lungs, neck and groin. He was found unfit for service while in Cuba (July 22, 1924) and recommended transferred to a naval hospital. The hospital in Norfolk diagnosed his illness on August 24, 1924. Treatment was obviously unsuccessful, although he did live for somewhat more than a year after diagnosis.
3. It may be of interest that his wife, née Catherine Eldredge Cheatham, was the daughter of (then) Capt. Joseph Johnston Cheatham, later RADM (and head of the supply corps), who was at the funeral at Arlington, along his brother Col. Benjamin F. Cheatham, U.S.A. Catherine had her naval ancestry, too: her grandfather was Francis Hiram Arms, who died in the wreck of the Vandalia in Samoa in 1889, her uncle RADM Frank Thornton Arms.
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Roger left Lakewood High School in his senior year to enter the Naval Academy.
He married Catherine Cheatham on September 20, 1922, at the St. Thomas Church in Washington, D. C.
He was a member of the Army and Navy Club of Washington.
His father Algernon, who died in November 1915, had been a public school teacher, principal of Garfield School, and superintendent of the Hicksville schools. His mother was Elizabeth (Pendleton,) and his brother was Frank. His uncle was Brigadier General Joseph Henry Pendleton (‘1882,) U. S. Marine Corps.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1922
May 1923
July 1923
September 1923
November 1923
January 1924
March 1924
May 1924
July 1924
September 1924
November 1924
January 1925
March 1925
May 1925
July 1925
October 1925
Memorial Hall Error
Illness is not a criteria for inclusion in Memorial Hall. Also, Roger is listed as a "LT" in Memorial Hall; should be 2LT. (Register of Alumni and his headstone have 2LT.)
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
