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May 29, 1944 – May 29, 2024
Today marks the 80th anniversary of Gregor Duncan’s passing near Anzio, when the Jeep his was traveling in was struck by a German 88 shell. Duncan and Sgt. Jack Raymond were sent to Anzio, to gather material for a new series of drawings on the former beachhead. Raymond survived, but Duncan died due to injuries suffered from shell fragments. Please take a moment to think about Gregor Duncan, and all that might have been had he not been killed. Bill Mauldin summed up Duncan’s death well in his book, The Brass Ring: “I’ve lost friends who were ordinary people and just wanted to live and raise a family and pay…
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In The Beginning There was Sad Sack
Through the course of my research, I learned of Duncan’s widow, Janice Duncan Goodhue, and how she had met him in Naples, Italy just weeks before he was killed in action. I found that Janice had wound up in Nevada, where she had been interviewed for a repository of audio recollections by WWII veterans. She was last listed as living in Reno, so I decided to see if she was still with us. She was indeed! Janice was in her mid-90s and sharper than most tacks. We exchanged a few letters and chatted on the phone a couple of times. At this point, I was invested enough in my research…
The Art and Life of Gregor Duncan