A Volunteer in the International Brigades?
Paul Mooney, undated
The family of Paul Andrew Mooney (1910-1961) is searching for documentation to substantiate information he provided to his family about serving in the International Brigades. Paul Mooney was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Hughes High School in 1929 and attended the University of Cincinnati in 1929, 1935 and 1936. In 1936 he told his parents and his sister he was moving to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago.
In 1944, he was living in Detroit and working for Neisner’s department store. It was there that he met Rosemary Garces whom he married. Together they raised two children. Mooney continued to work in sales and management for most of his adult life. He died in 1961 and is buried in Cincinnati. His daughter Patty was 11-years-old when he died.
According to his daughter, Paul Mooney invented the story about going to the University of Chicago to cover for his departure for Spain. He went to great lengths to hide his activities from his family, including having a friend in Chicago send post cards to his family. He never told his parents or sister that he served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. He also spoke very little about Spain to his wife and children. The little information he shared with his family led his daughter Patty to begin a search for more about his service in Spain.
Patty’s search was complicated by the fact that he stated he volunteered under an alias and never spoke in detail about his time in Spain. According to her mother, a Native American [or more likely an African American] man, possibly named Jim, traveled with Mooney and helped him with his return home, probably sometime in 1937 or early 1938.
B l-r: Harry Hakim, Dennis Jordan, Spanish Volunteer, Harry Fisher, Steve Nelson, and unknown (Mooney?); F l-r: Sol Zalon, Doug Roach, unknown, unknown
Patty remembers that her father had a two-inch scar on his back that he said was from a wound he received in Spain. She relayed that he had his family doctor falsify his medical record to state the scar was the result of surgery for pleurisy.
Despite the family’s assertion, it is unlikely we will be able to confirm that Mooney served in Spain. Without a solid name the avenues of research are extremely limited. Gaps in his record also complicate the search. The family knows little about Mooney’s life before the early 1940’s.
If you have any information or photographs that may aid the family’s search for records, please respond to this article so that I may share possible leads with Mooney’s family.
Mooney, HS
Mooney 1943-1944
Undated
Undated
