AOctober 20 1944
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Friday, October 20, 1944
Lt. John T. Beckner, Aide To Admiral Dewey, Dies
Lt. John Taliaferro Beckner, 66, retired Navy officer and a former automobile dealer here, died early yesterday at St. Petersburg, of an illness resulting from Spanish-American War wounds.
A brother of Col. Lucien Beckner, Louisville geologist, he also was a writer and chess expert. Lieutenant Beckner was graduated from Annapolis in 1898. He served first on the battleship Iowa in the Battle of Santiago, then with Admiral Dewey on his flagship, the Baltimore, in the Philippine Insurrection. He suffered a shattered right arm and internal injuries during an engagement in the Gulf of Lingayen.
Before coming here in the 1920's, he was an editorial staff member of The New York Times. From Louisville he moved to Miami and later to St. Petersburg.
Lieutenant Beckner was a volunteer officer with Capt. Bowman McCalla during the siege of Tien Tsin in China's Boxer Rebellion and later marched to Pekin, where he saw the looting of that ancient Manchu capital by the Chinese.
He was the son of the late U. S. Representative William M. Beckner and Elizabeth Taliaferro Beckner, Winchester, Ky.
In addition to his brother, he is survived by his wife, the former Margaret Lee Fitter of Louisville; a son, John T. Beckner, Jr., a daughter, Miss Lillian Beckner; a stepson, Lt. William Gordon Bryant; another brother, Col. William H. Beckner, York, Penn., and two sisters, Mrs. Edward Clark and Mrs. Phoebe B. Worth, both of Lexington.
October 22 1944
Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, Sunday, October 22, 1944
Funeral services for John T. Beckner, who died Thursday at Bay Pines, will be held Tuesday morning at 10:30 o'clock at Bay Pines. Mr. Beckner was one of two men to receive citations from Adm. Dewey in the Battle of the Philippines in the Spanish-American war and received the highest marks ever given a student of mathematics at Annapolis. He was a world famous chess player and was a member of the local club. Wilhelm's are in charge of arrangements.
