Maj. Peyton Spotswood Mathis, Jr., will be buried with military honors at Greenwood Cemetery at 2:00 pm on Saturday, January 3. The son of Peyton S. Mathis, Sr., and Laura Davis Mathis of Montgomery, Maj. Mathis was a 1932 graduate of Sidney Lanier High School. After earning a chemical engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, where he also played football, Peyton Mathis volunteered as an aviation cadet in 1940.
As a lieutenant, Peyton Mathis was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star for his World War II service in Europe and North Africa. Later promoted to Major, Mathis commanded the 44th Fighter Squadron in the Pacific Theater. He was killed in action on Guadalcanal on June 5, 1944.
His immediate family included his sister Helen Mathis Lutz Cumbus, half-siblings Warner L. Mathis and Amy Mathis Boswell, nieces Mary Ann Lutz Hooper and Helen Lutz Perkins, and cousins Mary Eleise Cravey and Lt. Col. John T. Cravey, all later deceased in the years that Maj. Mathis was missing in action.
Peyton Mathis, Jr. is survived by his widow Evelyn, half-nephews and -nieces Peyton Mathis III, Warner L. Mathis, Jr., Marcia Mathis McCabe, and Hazel Mims Mathis, and first cousin Laurette Cravey Kimbrough of the Davis family.
The family wishes to thank Mr. Anders Markwarth of Guadalcanal, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, and the people of the Solomon Islands for their efforts in recovering and identifying Maj. Mathis.
