Adair County News, April 21, 1943, page eight:

NANCY TRAYLOR FALLS TO DEATH IN NEW YORK

   The following story copied from The Chicago Daily News of April 13,
will be read with interest here as the victim was a daughter of the late
Mevin [sic] Traylor, native of Breeding, Ky.:
   The death of Mrs. Nancy Traylor Sowder, 29, daughter of the late
Melvin Traylor, Chicago banker, who leaped or fell from her suite on the
10th floor of the Hotel Plaza in New York last night was being
investigated by the police here today.
   Her husband, Robert Sowder, an oil man of Madison, Kas., said he had
been in the living room while Mrs. Sowder was in an adjoining bedroom
and that he discovered she was missing when he went to call her.
   She had been ill recently and might have gone to the window for fresh
air, Sowder said. The couple, who had traveled extensively since their
marriage, had been in New York about two weeks.
   Mrs. Sowder's body will be brought to Chicago for burial, but funeral
arrangements have not been completed, members of the family said here today.
   She made her debut in Chicago in 1932 and served on several charity
committees. Her marriage to Sowder in Richmond, Mo., in 1940 was her
third. Her first husband was Nathan B. Swift, great-grandson of Gustavus
F. Swift, founder of the Swift Packing Co., and her second was Marcy T.
Weeks, Chicago loan company executive.
   Mrs. Sowder's mother lives at 426 Barry Ave. Her father, who died in
1934, was president of the First National Bank of Chicago. Long
prominent in Democratic politics, he was boomed for the party's
presidential nominee in 1932. Shortly before his death he was elected to
the advisory council of National Broadcasting Co.
**********

Curiously enough, Mr. Traylor's 1932 political aspirations again made
print two weeks later, in the May 5, 1943 edition of the "Adair County
News" in the obituary of George R. Reed:

   "He [G.R. Reed] was prominent in Democratic politics and was a
delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago at which
time he was a supporter of the late Melvin A. Traylor as a candidate for
President."
**********

Adair County News, October 6, 1943, page four:

Lieut. Melvin A. Traylor Awarded Silver Star

   A copy of a recent dispatch from Wellington, New Zealand, which
appeared in daily papers throughout the country, was sent to this office
by one of our good subscribers. The story, which will be read with
interest here follows:
   Lieut. Melvin A. Traylor, 27 years old, former ornithologist with the
Field Museum in Chicago, has been awarded the Silver Star medal for
heroism under fire with the Marines on Guadalcanal.
   Presentation of the award took place on a parade ground near here and
was made by Col. T.E. Bourke, U.S.M.C. of Pasadena, Calif., before the
assembled officers and men of his command.
   The medal was awarded with a citation which commended Lieutenant
Traylor "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while
serving as an artillery forward observer attached to an infantry patrol
on Guadalcanal on December 27, 1942."
   Lieutenant Traylor is the son of Mrs. Dorothy G. Traylor, of Chicago,
and the late Melvin A. Traylor, Chicago banker. His wife, Mrs. Evelyn
Traylor, lives in Winnetka, Chicago suburb.
**********

Brief mention of some of Mr. Melvin A. Traylor Jr.'s later
accomplishments in the field of Ornithology may be found at
<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200201/ai_n9020693>.