Local Players on the House of David Basketball Team

            Last week we learned what happened to the religious organization, House of David. Today we will find out what happened to the three young men from Spencer, Ollie troth, Red Johnson and Wayne Payton, who played on the House of David barnstorming basketball team.

            We first find mention of Red Johnson, whose given name was Floyd, in a 1932 newspaper article headlined Shot By Father. The story reads:

            Floyd (Red) Johnson was accidentally shot Monday by his father, Otis Johnson, while hunting southwest of Spencer. The two were about 75 feet apart and two of the shot penetrated the body, one entering just above the heart and the other in one hip. The doctor probed for the shot in the breast but failed to locate it. Young Johnson was up town Monday night, still very nervous from the shock. 

            The next and last mention we find of Red Johnson is in his father’s 1948 obituary where he is listed as living in Clinton, Illinois.

            Oliver “Ollie” Jerome Troth died in Jasper, Indiana on December 12, 2009. He was born November 7, 1921 and graduated from Spencer High School where he was a member of the Indiana All-Star basketball team which beat Kentucky in 1940. He must have joined the House of David basketball team shortly thereafter because he served as a Marine during World War II.

            In 1945 Ollie Troth married Mary Jane Corson and went to work at the Joy Manufacturing Company in Michigan City, Indiana which manufactured various types of mining equipment. Ollie retired from Joy Manufacturing, which has since closed its Michigan City plant. In 1994, private developers took over the 600,000 square foot property, located in a residential neighborhood. The developers invested over $5 million in the facility and recruited six companies that employed 600 people before it was sold. Today the largest employer in Michigan City is the Blue Chip Hotel and Casino.

            After retirement, Ollie and Mary Troth became Florida snowbirds before moving to Jasper in 2008 to be near his daughter, Jayne, and her family.

            Wayne Payton’s story is the one we know the most about.

            Wayne Payton had been a standout player for the Spencer High School “Cops.” He was a member of the 1939 Indiana All-Stars team that beat Kentucky that year; Kentucky being the arch-nemesis to Hoosiers everywhere.

            After graduation Wayne worked at the Collier Brothers Creamery and the Bell Telephone Company before hooking up with the House of David basketball team.

            He couldn’t have played with them long. On December 7, 1941, Wayne was in Spencer with another local boy, Robert “LeRoy” Long who played semi-pro basketball with the Delco Brake Company of Dayton, Ohio, when they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. They decided to enlist.

            Wayne Payton was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Indianapolis and enlisted at Fort Benjamin Harrison on January 28, 1942. After basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, Fort Benning, Georgia and Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, Wayne Payton was assigned to the 1^st Infantry Division as part of the anti-tank regiment. He landed in England in August, 1942 as part of the first large convoy of American soldiers to land overseas. From there he was ordered to North Africa to fight in the Battle of Tunisia.

            On August 27, 1943, Wayne Payton’s parents received a telegram from the “Commanding General of the North African area” that Wayne had been missing in action since July 11^th. The Payton’s worry was alleviated somewhat when they received a telegram August 31^st from a Miss Mary Jane Royer who reported that she had heard word from LeRoy Johnson that Wayne was alright and for her to “keep her chin up.” Unfortunately LeRoy Johnson was mistaken.

            On Tuesday, September 14, 1943, Mr. and Mrs. Payton received another telegram. This one informed them that their son had been killed in action on July 11, 1943 while serving in North Africa.

            Robert “LeRoy” Long also ended up being reported as missing in action but was found gravely injured with gunshot wounds, “from one side of his body to the other.”

            “They had big, long wooden prongs that ran right through where that shrapnel went through,” Long recalled, “They made a tunnel. The only way to clean it out was to put some sulphur on it and jam it through.”

            In recalling hearing that fateful announcement with his friend Wayne Payton back in Spencer on December 7, 1941 Long reminisces in an interview given to the Spencer Evening World, “Little did we realize what this tragic news would mean to our lives.”

~ Laura Wilkerson
   Genealogy Department; OCPL