Biography

Farris, Harry Edward b. September 13, 1915, Rockport, Missouri; Father Harry O. Farris, mother Daisy Bell Townsend; Married; Hotel Worker and Fry Cook; CP June 1937; Received Passport# 448990 on June 22, 1937 which listed his address as 201 South 15^th Street, Omaha, Nebraska; Sailed June 26, 1937 aboard the Britannic; Arrived in Spain via Massanet on July 11, 1937; Served with the XV BDE, BDE Scouts; BDE Armory; Lincoln-Washington BN; Rank Cabo; Returned to the US on December 20, 1938 aboard the Ausonia; WWII US Army Air Corps; d. October 15, 1943, Richmond, Virginia, Farris was tried and convicted for the murder of Vinichio Bichi and sentenced to death by electric chair; His death certificate indicates that he was divorced from Gertrude Slickhoff, and had been working as a Ferris Wheel operator prior to entering the Army; Buried in Forrest Lawn Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

Sources: Sail; Scope of Soviet Activity; Figueres List; RGASPI; L-W Tree Ancestry. Code A

Photographs: Armorer at work, Harry Farris, Tarraga, May 1938. The 15th International Brigade Photographic Unit Photograph Collection ; ALBA Photo 11; ALBA Photo number 11-0896. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.