Peninsula In Passage

Grayson Blackwell Lassiter Bobbi Lassiter, 86, has always been proud of her brother-in law but never had a chance to know him. Pharmacist’s Mate 3rd Class Grayson Blackwell Lassiter served as a corpsman with the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines in World War II. He was wounded at Iwo Jima on March 1, 1945 and died of his injuries three days later. He was 19. She understands his sacrifice – she served in the WAVES and her brother, George Evans, Jr., was in the Navy during the war. Then she married John R. Lassiter, who was born and raised in Driver. They lived on a 330 acre farm that backed up to the Dismal Swamp and she remembers when bears would come up to the front door. Bobbi Lassiter still lives in Driver, nor far from the crossroads. Grayson Lassiter, John’s brother, served as a corpsman alongside John “Doc” Bradley, one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers. Lassiter likely watched the flag rise on Mt. Suribachi just a week before he was wounded. In an earlier letter home to his mother Lassiter wrote, “They tell us that we are the most important branch of the service and we have a big job ahead of us. So as you know if you want anything bad enough you have to fight for it so I am willing to land with the Marines and fight for my freedom and the freedom of every American.” Lassiter was initially buried in the 4th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima but later his remains were sent home to be reinterred in 1948 in the family lot at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk. Lassiter’s maternal grandfather, Pvt. T. Augustus Lacy, served with Co I, First Virginia Infantry during the Civil War.

(Right) Grayson Blackwell Lassiter

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