Veteran Spotlight
by Richard D. L. Fulton
Kenneth H. Bayne
Croix de Guerre Recipient
Although Kenneth H. Bayne was not born and raised in Maryland, his ties to Frederick County became indelibly intertwined with Maryland, and notably, Frederick County, where he was ultimately buried.
Case in point, when the iconic Brunswick Railroad YMCA burned on November 8, 1980, a groundbreaking was held on May 24, 1985, in order to replace the structure.
At the time of the groundbreaking, Bayne was serving as the financial consultant for the King of Prussia (Pennsylvania)-based Transportation YMCA of the USA, while step-son Richard (who had been initially raised in Brunswick, and was later in life, a resident of Emmitsburg) was serving as the organization’s editor and director of communications; as a result, both were present at the groundbreaking.
Bayne was born on February 26, 1920, in Washington, D.C., to James and Naomi Mae Bayne. He had one brother, J. Edward, and two sisters, Caroline and Louise.
Bayne registered for the draft on July 1, 1941, his registration card indicating that he was 5’8” in height and weighed 135 pounds. The card also described him as having freckles, black hair, and hazel eyes. His employment at the time was given as a secretary for the American Short Line Railroad Association.
Bayne, a conscientious objector, was assigned by the Army to the medical corps, wherein he served as a battlefield medic in World War II, entering the war on D-Day via Omaha Beach, Normandy. He served again during the Korean War, and additionally, as a medic with the occupation forces in Japan. After the culmination of World War II, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government.
After the war, Bayne was employed at Union Station, Washington, D.C., as a chief accountant, until his retirement in 1968.
In 1953, Bayne married his second wife, Regina Moler Fulton, of Brunswick, to whom he remained married until the time of his death in 1999. He had custody of his two daughters from his first marriage, Linda and Barbara, and gained a stepson, Richard, from his new wife’s previous marriage.
The couple had initially resided in Washington, D.C., for a short period of time before purchasing their first and second home in Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland.
Bayne was an avid football and baseball fan, enjoyed collecting rocks and minerals, was a noteworthy lapidarist, and was an active member of the Washington, D. C., and Maryland mineralogical societies. He later enjoyed going on camping trips with his wife and their cat, Prissy.
The Philadelphia Daily News also noted in their June 3, 1999, edition that Bayne possessed a season pass to the Phillies baseball games and enjoyed woodworking, and trips with his wife to the Atlantic City casinos.
Bayne died on June 1, 1999, at the Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia.
Upon his passing, due to his many years spent in Philadelphia and his association with Frederick County, two funeral services were held for Bayne, the first taking place on the morning of June 3 in Burholm, Pennsylvania, at the Immanual Lutheran Church, with a second service held later that day at the John T. Williams Funeral Home in Brunswick, Maryland.
As an interesting aside, as Bayne’s body was being transported in a hearse from Philadelphia to Brunswick via the Washington Beltway, followed by a van conveying the flowers from the Philadelphia service, the hearse caught on fire and was disabled.
His wife was subsequently informed that the fire was extinguished with water from the flower arrangements in the van that was following the hearse. The body was then transferred to another hearse and able to resume the trip to Brunswick after some delay in the services.
Bayne was ultimately interred at the Reformed Cemetery in Knoxville, and was buried with full military honors and military
