Edward Francis Knight – Colonel, United States Army

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EDWARD F. KNIGHT, SHIP PUBLIST, 53
Former Director for the French Line is Dead
Served as Colonel in Recent War

MIAMI, Florida – February 25, 1949 – Colonel Edward F. Knight, former publicity director for the French Line, died this afternoon in the Alton Road Hospital, Miami Beach.  His age was 53.

Colonel Knight came here on February 9 with Colonel John Williams of Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, after his release from New York Hospital, where he had undergone treatment for a heart ailment.  He suffered a relapse on Wednesday.

Surviving is a sister, Miss Jane Knight of 25-90 Thirty-Fifth Street, Astoria, Queens, where Colonel Knight also resided.

Born in Brooklyn, Colonel Knight had been associated with French Line public relations since 1930.  In collaboration with Clay Morgan he did the work of publicizing the liner Normandie.

He wrote the released for the maiden voyage of the Lafayette in 1930 and the Champlain in 1932.  In 1937 Colonel Knight prepared the publicity for the Paris Exhibition, and two years later he performed the same service for the French Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.

From 1935 to September 1940, he was publicity manager of the French Line, leaving to enter military service, as a Major in the Seventy-First Infantry, New York National Guard.  He became plans and training officer of that unit.

In August 1941 he was assigned to the officer of the Chief of Staff, Washington, and helped in the formation of the Morale Branch (later Special Services).  He was also Chief of the Continental Liaison Section of the War Department Public Relations Bureau in Washington.

Transferred in February 1943 to the Inspector General’s Office, he went overseas in October of that year as a Lieutenant Colonel, a rank to which he had been promoted in July 1942.  In July 1945, he was made a full colonel.  While in the European Theater he served as Inspector General and Air Inspector of the European Division, Air Transport Command.

Colonel Knight won the Bronze Star Medal, the Commendation Ribbon and the Croix de Guerre with palms in the recent war, in which he saw active duty on four battle fronts.  He was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor.  In the First World War he also had served in France, starting as a Private with the 105th Infantry and received the Purple Heart Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters.

His health began to deteriorate two years ago.  He retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel last fall and returned to his post with the French Line, but received a leave of absence because of illness last month.

A funeral service will be held at 8 P.M. on Monday at the Campbell Funeral Church, Madison Avenue and Eighty-First Street, New York.  Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

KNIGHT, EDWARD FRANCIS
COL INF NG WWII

  • DATE OF DEATH: 02/25/1949
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 11  SITE 608 SH
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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