Brigadier-General Casper Bell Rucker
Sept. 9, 1886-March 30, 1948 (Regular Army)
Chariton County Courier – Friday July 16, 1943
Casper Bell Rucker was born in Brunswick in Chariton County, the son of the late Lovick Rucker. He graduated from Brunswick High School and attended Missouri University for three years.
He served 34 years in the Army enlisting as a private in August, 1909. Rising from the ranks, General Rucker experienced many phases of military life and had the background that every officer needs in order to have a complete understanding of the men he commands.
In 1910 he was sent to the Philippines, the first of three military trips there, returning as a Sergeant in 1911. The following year he returned to the Philippines as a Second Lieutenant, having secured his commission at Ft. Leavenworth and spent two years on the Islands.
Promoted to first Lieutenant in 1916, the entry of the United States into the World War I in 1917 brought his promotion to Captain. Successive promotions were major in 1920, Lieutenant Colonel in 1935, Colonel in 1940, following his assignment as Chief of Staff with Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston (later moved to Dallas, Texas). With the rank of Brigadier General, he was Chief of Staff of the Eighth Service Command during WWII. Casper retired from the military June, 1946 and became a zone administrator for the War Assets Administration. He retired in January, 1948 because of health reasons.
He was a graduate of the Army War College, the Infantry School, and Command and General Staff School attending the latter in 1926. General and Mrs. Rucker (nee Donaldson) had two daughters, Miss Elizabeth Rucker of Dallas and Mrs. A.B. Schutt, wife of Captain Schutt of Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. He is buried at Elliott Grove Cemetery in Brunswick. He was the brother of Vernon S. Rucker of Brunswick, also a World War Veteran. A brother, Lovick Rucker, Jr., died in World War I and is one of the men for whom the American Legion Rucker-McAllister Post in Brunswick is named.
When Gen Casper Bell Rucker was born on September 9, 1886, in Brunswick, Chariton, Missouri, his father, Lovick Pierce Rucker, was 26 and his mother, Ada Blanche Smutz, was 22. He married Mary Sue Donaldson on December 16, 1920, in Greenville, South Carolina. They were the parents of at least two daughters. He lived in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1920 and Fort Sam Houston in Texas, in 1934. He registered for military service in 1917. He died on 31 March 1948, in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 61, and was buried in Elliott Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Missouri.
Highlights of Army career are:
Promotions:
1935-08-01 Lieutenant-Colonel
1940-08-01 Colonel
1943-06-23 Brigadier-General (United State Army)
1946-06-03 Brigadier-General (Retired)
Service:
1938-07-XX-1940-11-XX Assistant Inspector-General, Philippine Department
1940-11-XX-1941-12-XX Chief of Staff, 5th Infantry Division
1941-12-XX-1942-01-XX Deputy Chief of Staff, 8th Corps Area
1942-01-XX-1945-06-XX Chief of Staff, 8th Service Command
1946-06-XX Retired