James Anderson Summers, a tall, lanky, gentleman with a soft southern drawl that characterized his home of origin no matter where he traveled in the world was raised on a farm in Jayess, Mississippi. He grew up tending crops, picking cotton and hunting and fishing for recreational purposes as well as putting food on his family's dining table. Jimmy, as his family knew him, was 13 years old when the stock market crashed in 1929. The depression era experience left an impact on him that would see him live modestly but with gratitude for whatever he had in life. Jim joined the Marine Corps in 1940 and proudly served 31 years as a United States Marine in the 1st Marine Division. He saw action in the South Pacific at Peleilu and was so severely wounded that he was not expected to survive. His 18 month recovery was so remarkable that it later became the focus of an article in Esquire magazine. His military career sent him to Japan, China, Philippines, South Pacific islands, Australia, Yugoslavia and Vietnam. He also served stateside in Nevada, California, and Hawaii. Two particular tours of duty had a major impact on his life. The first occurred in 1951 when he was assigned to head up the Marine guard contingent at the new US embassy in Beograd, Yugoslavia. A lifelong bachelor, Jim met Olga Vlatkovic through her sister, Dragana (who was an employee at the embassy) when Jim had extra tickets to the theatre and offered them to Dragana who he knew had 10 brothers and sisters at home. As they say, the rest was history and Jim and Olga were married on September 6, 1953. The years that followed saw a daughter, Dora, born in October 1956 and the immigration of five of Olga's siblings to America. The second memorable tour of duty occurred between 1965-1968 when Jim was stationed at the marine corps station in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. In later years, Jim and his wife Olga, said that these were the happiest years of their life together. As a result, they both requested to have their ashes scattered just off of Diamond Head near Waikiki Beach.