Cotten, John Henderson, 1913-1982

John Henderson Cotten was a United States Naval Academy graduate and career naval officer. He commanded a destroyer in the Pacific in World War II and taught at various naval schools in the 1950s.

Elizabeth Brownrigg Henderson was born in Salisbury, N.C., on 4 August 1875, the daughter of John Steele and Elizabeth Cain Henderson. She spent her childhood in Salisbury and in Washington, D.C., while her father served in Congress, 1885-1895. She graduated from St. Mary's School in Raleigh, N.C. Elizabeth Henderson and Lyman A. Cotten, a naval officer from North Carolina, were married in 1908. During Captain Cotten's naval career, Lyman and Elizabeth lived in the United States, China, Turkey, and Japan. While in the United States, Mrs. Cotten was active in the women's suffrage movement. Elizabeth Cotten moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1926, following the death of her husband. In 1932, she began working at the Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina Library. She also served as the first executive secretary of the Friends of the Library. She died on 3 February 1975.

John Henderson Cotten was born in Karulzawa, Japan, in 1913 to Lyman A. Cotten, naval attache, and Elizabeth Henderson Cotten. In 1935, Cotten was graduated from the United States Naval Academy. He served on convoy duty with the United States Navy in the Atlantic until the outbreak of World War II. As commander of the U.S.S. Charles J. Badger, a destroyer, he was involved in the bombardment of the Gilbert Islands, Okinawa, and other Pacific Islands. Cotten was awarded the Bronze Star in 1945. Following the war, Cotten held several assignments, chiefly in Washington, D.C. He served at a number of service schools, including the Armed Forces College in Norfolk, Va. (1952); the Fleet School in Key West, Fla. (1953); and the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. (1956-1957). Cotten acted as naval liaison officer to the Eighth Army in South Korea in 1954. He also saw duty on naval vessels such as the Des Moines (1948-1950); the Compass Island (1959-1960); and the Galveston (1961). Cotten died at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1982.

(Elizabeth Cotten information adapted from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell.)