Jan Davis: The only time he talked about being a POW was when we were going through his journal, and he was showing me the paintings and the drawings that he did. But as far as how it affected his life, I think — and he said this in some of the letters that he wrote home — he appreciated more of the little things like grass, and food. For the rest of his life, he treasured white bread. It was like cake. But in terms of his outlook, he was a very positive person, a very kind and loving person, and I think he appreciated people and his family. He did make friends in the prison camp, but that was really a means of survival, to have that camaraderie.
I didn't grow up with him, but I asked my sister about how it affected him. She said he never got mad. Obviously he's motivated and a hard worker, but he knows how to deal with his emotions and he has had lots of outlets for stress or tension. He did a lot of models: aircraft models, stagecoach models, did a lot of research on the West. He was drawing all these maps and writing about that. It's interesting, because I think that helps me, too. I do different kinds of art. I do textile arts, quilting and sewing and embroidery, things like that. When I was an astronaut corps, that's when I started quilting.
But I don't know how it affected him in his relationships with people; I don't know why he and my mother divorced. I don't know why he and his second wife divorced. So I don't know if he did have some flashes of the war, or anything that affected him in his relationships. But from what my sister said, he was very positive, and very slow to anger.