Dorothy Davis recalled how her father, the late Joseph P. Chickirda, was quite a humble man.

And that’s probably why he never boasted about how he played “Taps” on his bugle — not once, but twice — at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Davis might not have even known about the prestigious honor had she not found a photo that her mother, the late Daryl (Hollenbach) Chickirda, clipped from a newspaper. It shows Chickirda dressed in his Army uniform, the bugle pressed to his lips as military personnel behind him saluted.

It was May 31, 1938 — Memorial Day.

“I am so proud of my father,” Davis said.

Davis said that her father was 18 years-old when the photo was snapped. He had just joined the service and was stationed near Washington, D.C.

She and her family would also learn through a local newspaper’s history column that Chickirda was chosen to play “Taps” at the Tomb for a July 4 celebration while in the Army.

“My father never really bragged about what he did or about when he was in the service,” said Davis, a Tamaqua native living in Schuylkill Haven.

Davis said she found the clipped newspaper photo after her father had passed away.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my word!,’” Davis said of the discovery.

The photo caption reads, “Bugler Joseph Chickirda, of Fort Myer, Va., is shown blowing taps yesterday during the Memorial Day exercises at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”

The photo was credited to the International News Service, and Davis believes it appeared in a local newspaper, where her mother saw it.

It likely appeared in newspapers across the country, too, including the May 31, 1938, edition of the Washington Herald. The newspaper included an aerial shot of Arlington’s packed amphitheater and noted that “Thousands of visitors from out of town joined more thousands from Washington in observing the day.”

Davis said she began posting an image of the yellowing newspaper clipping on Facebook, even though she admits, “You couldn’t make anything out.”

A friend offered to make adjustments to the black and white image to improve its appearance. And recently, her sister, Daryl Zubey, reached out on social media to ask if anyone could work their magic on the image.

Sure enough, someone did. Davis was amazed by the results.

“When my sister sent that to me, I could not believe it,” Davis said. “It is so sharp. I was absolutely amazed. I said to my husband, ‘I’m putting it on Facebook. Veterans Day is coming up.”

She said she’s received many comments on the photo.

“A few people said that it was an honor to be picked to actually do that,” Davis said. “You had to be good. We are so proud of my father.”

While she doesn’t know much about his service, she said that when World War II broke out, her father stayed stateside.

“They kept those men there. My father was a training officer, too,” Davis said. “So my father never saw the action, as far as it went when these poor guys were sent overseas.”

She also knows that he and others in his unit rode on horseback from Washington, D.C. to Texas.

“There was nothing mechanical that they could drive because everything was being shipped overseas,” Davis said. When they’d need to rest for the night, they’d sleep beneath the wagons they towed.

Chickirda had grown up in Middleport, and began his Army career as a bugler. He’d reach the rank of sergeant and last served at Camp Abbot in central Oregon.

“While he didn’t talk much about anything (related to the service), I will tell you that on Memorial Day when we growing up, my father used to go to some of the different cemeteries and play ‘Taps,’” Davis said.

An article published in the Pottsville Republican newspaper on May 29, 1948, invites folks to Memorial Day services around Middleport, Tuscarora and Brockton featuring Chickirda of “Arlington Cemetery fame.”

Davis also learned that her father had been accepted into the Braun School of Music in Pottsville.

“My husband said to me, ‘Oh my, Dorothy. That was a prestigious music school. They just didn’t take anybody,’” Davis said.

While raising his family in Tamaqua, Chickirda worked for the Lehigh and New England Railroad and Greenwood Mining.