Great-grandfather
Arthur Charles Humby
Born May 19, 1886, England · Died June 19, 1967, Stamford, Connecticut
The American Humby line starts with Arthur Charles, an Englishman who emigrated sometime after 1901 and settled in Brooklyn. He appears in England's 1891 and 1901 censuses as a boy, registered for both the WWI and WWII drafts as Arthur Charles Humby, and was naturalized in New York.
In 1940 he was 54 and living at 201 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, with his wife Julia, daughter Kathleen, son Arthur Jr. and a lodger. He outlived Julia by 25 years and died in Stamford in 1967.
Still to find: his exact birthplace in England, his parents, and the ship he arrived on.
Great-grandmother
Julia Hynes Humby
Born c. 1884, probably Ireland · Died October 25, 1942, Brooklyn
Julia's maiden name, Hynes, comes from her son's obituary. Hynes is an Irish surname most common in County Galway, and one family tree places her birth in Ireland, though no record confirms it yet. She was the mother of Kathleen (born about 1917) and Arthur John (born 1919), and died in Brooklyn at about 59, nearly three years before her son came home from the war and married.
Still to find: her marriage to Arthur Charles (likely Brooklyn or Manhattan, about 1915–1917), her immigration record and her parents.
Grandfather
Arthur John "Art" Humby
Born August 8, 1919, Brooklyn · Died May 13, 2012 · Buried with military honors, Duck River Cemetery, Old Lyme, CT
Art graduated from St. Augustine High School in Brooklyn and, with honors, from Notre Dame. He enlisted in the Air Corps in June 1941, earned his pilot's wings in January 1942, and became an aircraft commander flying photo-reconnaissance B-29s over Japan, Korea, Formosa, eastern China and Manchuria.
The walk-out, February–April 1945
On February 2, 1945, Art's F-13, the Brooklyn Bessie IV, lost an engine to flak over Port Arthur, Manchuria. Rather than ditch in the Yellow Sea, he turned for land. When the loose propeller set the wing on fire, he ordered the bail-out three times and jumped last, over Japanese-occupied northern China near Pinggu, about 50 miles from Beijing.
Chinese guerrillas found the crew, hid them and guided them roughly 1,000 miles over about 75 days, mostly at night and through Japanese lines. They waited three weeks for a rescue plane that never came, slipped under a railroad bridge within sight of a Japanese blockhouse, and crossed the Yellow River into free China on April 12. On April 17 they reached Yenan, and two days later Art flew out on the first plane. He skipped a planned banquet with Mao Tse-tung, which he later said he regretted.
A squadron colleague wrote that Art brought his entire crew of 11 back safely. Army records list him as "evaded," not captured.
Read Art's diary of the walk-out →
Three months after the walk-out, on July 10, 1945, he married 1st Lt. Bette O'Connell at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford. After the war he sold real estate in Stamford and ran Humby-O'Connell Realty, retired from the Air Force Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1967, and retired to Old Lyme with Bette in 1971. They were married 60 years and had five children: Patricia, Betsy, Jeannie, Arthur "Rusty" Humby and Joseph.
Grandmother
Bette (O'Connell) Humby
Born April 13, 1917, Bristol, Connecticut · Died April 17, 2006, North Branford
Elizabeth M. "Bette" O'Connell was the daughter of Patrick J. O'Connell and Elizabeth Doran. She was a 1st Lieutenant herself when she married Art in 1945. A woman with a lieutenant's commission then was most often an Army Nurse Corps nurse or a WAC officer; her branch isn't confirmed yet. The cathedral where they married burned on New Year's Eve 1956 and was rebuilt in 1962.
Still to find: her branch and role in the war.
Son of Art and Bette
Arthur "Rusty" Humby
Born September 20, 1953 · Died July 14, 2021
Rusty was one of Art and Bette's five children. He married Karen, Mary and Duke Donahue's daughter, bringing the Humby and Donahue families together.
Read Rusty's tribute →