After decades, a family has been reunited with their great-uncle’s medal earned during WWII.It was found at an estate sale in Buttonwillow. How the POW medal got there, no one seems to know. However, one Kern County resident found it because the name on the medal was the same as her husband’s, James Davis. The Oildale resident veteran James Davis died many years ago but his medal was bought by the resident who found it. The resident reached out to a veterans organization then to Assemblymember Rudy Salas’ office and the hunt began. The medal was given to the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery and was eventually traced to the great-niece of Corporal James Hubert Davis who is living in San Bernadino.
On Veterans Day, along with members of her family, Tia Gardner was presented with the medal by Assemblymember Rudy Salas and officials from the Gallery. Gardner says the feeling was overwhelming. “People that I would never have encountered in my everyday life have moved Heaven and Earth to make today happen for me and my family.”