Ben Thomas Traywick

Ben T. Traywick

August 3, 1927 - October 7, 2025

"Evil Ben", at the age of 98, passed away peacefully in Sierra Vista, Arizona, after a long and courageous battle with life.

He was born just before, and grew up through, the Great Depression in the small rural town of Watertown, Tennessee. His father was Hobart Trawick (Ben later added the "Y" to the name) and his mother was Sybba Warren.

 Like countless other brave young men, he saw it to be his duty to defend our country in World War II. And he joined the US Navy at the age of 15. He lied, the recruiter lied, and the woman whom he paid to say she was his mother, also lied about his age. He served a total of six years in the Navy aboard the USS Jenkins (DD-447), USS Whipstock (YO-49), and USS Missouri (BB-63).  Ben saw action in combat as a gunner's mate aboard the destroyer USS Jenkins for two years in the South Pacific with Task Force 50, and participated in several amphibious landings in the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Manila and Corregidor, as well as patrolling from Australia to Guadalcanal before the ship was hit by either a torpedo or mine, lost one engine and managed to make its way back to Long Beach, California.

Ben's awards and decorations include the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign with 2 Silver Stars and 1 Bronze Star, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with 2 Bronze Stars, representing a total of 13 major battles.

It was in Long Beach that Ben met a young woman who was also from Tennessee,  Marie Grant, later known as Red Marie. They  were married from August of 1945 until her death in 1997. They raised  three children together: Jenny Simpson (Don) of Sierra Vista,  Bill Traywick (Gena) of Benson, and Mary Holloway (Mark) of Savannah, GA. They have three grandchildren, Benton Traywick of Benson,  Rachel Traywick-Stretch of Benson,  and Josh Beardsworth (Marija) of Savannah, GA. And they are also survived by eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Ben married for the second time in 2002 to Mary Dolores Vasquez and gained four stepchildren at that time: Peter Vasquez of Sierra Vista, Luci Harke (Brenton) of Tucson, Michael Vasquez (Christina) of Duncan and Christopher (Amanda) Vasquez of Tombstone. Ben and Mary were able to travel together to many locales where Ben would not have ventured without her.  He was blessed by each of his marriages.

After the war and his time in the Navy, Ben earned his High School diploma. Then he went on to earn a degree in Chemical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee  which led to being hired by the Atomic Energy Commisssion to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  He was later recruited by Aerojet General Missile Company to move to Northern California where he became the General Foreman of Polaris Nuclear Missile Research and Development, and delivered  the world's first submarine-fired ballistic missiles to the US Navy, on schedule. Aerojet later picked him to help establish a new missile plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and he moved there with his family for about a year, before returning to California.

While he lived in California, Ben would explore the gold-mining country in the Sierra Nevada mountains and began writing short stories of the gold rush for western magazines. Eventually he was having so many stories published that the publisher of one magazine gave him a pen name so they could publish some more of Ben's articles in the same issue.

Ben became intrigued with Tombstone and the Earps and had the opportunity to go to work for Apache Powder Company in Benson where he ultimately became the plant manager. He moved to Tombstone in 1968 and had bookstores in several locations in town, finally settling into the spot across from the Epitaph, where  he lived,  wrote books and ran Red Marie's Bookstore. He always welcomed anyone who dropped by for a book signing or just to chat, be they a Hollywood celebrity or just a tourist.  During his  fifty-plus years in Tombstone. He traveled to almost every museum in the state for research, cultivated friendships with other western writers, tried to get to the truth in the myths, formed the Wild Bunch and wrote scripts for renactments, published books, boosted tourism, became the official Tombstone Historian, and THE recognized expert on Tombstone, the Earps and Holliday, and the OK Corral.

The family would like to thank Valor Hospice, especially Megan, and Healing Hearts Assisted Living, especially Randy and Beverly, for their care and kindness.

Per his wishes, he will be be buried in a ceremony with military honors in Tombstone.

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