Robert Van Rensselaer Bassett Jr. descends from #95B William Bassett as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth Bosden
Benjamin Bassett (b. 1766) and wife Elizabeth (Hewett) Jones
William Bassett (b. 1814) and wife Hannah Rose Angel
James A. Bassett (b. 1846) and wife Mary Gallagher
Robert Van Rensselaer Bassett (b. 1884) and wife Harriett Hibberd
Robert Van Rensselaer Bassett Jr. (b. 1913)
The Binghampton Press, Friday Evening, August 11, 1944
Bassett Writes From Japan
Binghampton Press Bureau, Oswego, Aug. 11
The first communication in nearly a year from Lieut. Robert V.R. Bassett, who is a prisoner in a Japanese camp, was received by his wife and parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert V.R. Bassett, Sr. of Front Street this week when three letters written by him finally reached their destination.
The letters were written in October and December of last year and January of this year. All three communications stated that he was well. The last letter received prior to this week was last Aug. 13.
Lieutenant Bassett, who is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, was taken prisoner when his ship, the U.S.S. Pope, was sunk by the Japanese in the Java Sea in March, 1942. He has since been a prisoner of war at the Zentsuji Prison Camp in Japan.
Robert Van Rensselaer Bassett Jr.
Newspaper unknown
30-Year Career Man
Owego Navy Officer’s Rites Are Tuesday
Owego – Military funeral services will be held Tuesday for Capt. Robert V.R. Bassett, Jr., a U.S. Navy career officer from Owego who spent most of World War 2 as a prisoner of the Japanese.
Captain Bassett was the son of an Owego lawyer.
As a young lieutenant, Robert Bassett, Jr., was serving on a destroyer that was sunk by Japanese forces in the Pacific area early in World War 2.
He was not freed until the war ended, when he was among Americans liberated from a prison camp on Honshu, one of the home islands of Japan.
He stayed in the Navy after the war, held a variety of assignments and reached the rank of captain in 1954. He retired last year.
The funeral will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Fort Myers Chapel just outside Washington, D.C. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.
Captain Bassett died Wednesday in Albuquerque, N.M., following an extended illness. He was 53.
He retired from the navy on June 30, 1965, after 30 years of service.
Funeral services for Mr. Bassett also were held this afternoon in Albuquerque.
His body will be taken to the Gawler Mortuary at 5130 Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. where it will lie in state Sunday.
Mr. Bassett is survived by his wife, Mrs. Doris Pugh Bassett, a son, Armand J. Bassett of Rochester, and a daughter, Miss Sandra Bassett, who is a student at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Also surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert V.R. Bassett, Sr., of 337 Front Street, Owego, and a brother, Attorney Charles H. Bassett of Syracuse.
Mr. Bassett was born in Owego on Jan. 24, 1913, and attended schools in Owego.
After graduating from Owego Free Academy, he attended Severn Prep School in Maryland and later entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., where he was graduated in 1935.
While serving on the destroyer Pope, the ship was sunk in March, 1942, by the Japanese in the Battle of the Java Sea.
He was reported missing in action for six months but his parents later learned he had been taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was held by them in Japan until the war was ended in 1945.
Following the war, his assignment included the command of the Rehoboth, and executive officership of the Baltimore.
Captain Bassett also served on the staff of the chief of naval operations and with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers of Europe (SHAPE) and at one time was assigned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel.
Immediately prior to his retirement from the Navy, he was a commanding officer and a professor of naval science of the ROTC unit at the University of New Mexico. He held that position for 3 years.
Previous to that, he served in a similar capacity at Duke University.
At the time of his retirement, Mr. Bassett received a citation from the Navy for faithful and distinguished service.