This month, I’ll be sharing some of the letters and documents from after the war.
Clabe and Leora Wilson never learned about any of these.
A British Graves Registration Team at Klagenfurt, Austria, first learned about where Lt. Daniel S. Wilson was buried in late November, 1945, from captured Dulag-Luft (German) Reports.
The British reported it to Headquarters, Graves Registration Service, Germany zone, along with other American losses. “Cemetery SCHWANBERG, the uppermost line; entrance on the left side. The grave is adorned.”
That week in Iowa, Leora churned four pounds of butter, and sold butter, eggs, and twenty hens in Perry.
And Evelyn, Delbert Wilson’s wife, went home from the hospital with baby Donna. After Junior Wilson’s death, they (along with toddler Leora Darlene) had moved in with Delbert’s parents at the Perry acreage.
Brothers Dale and Danny Wilson were still listed as Missing in Action.
December 4 was Leora’s 55th birthday. She got her annual “kerchief” from her mother, a plant, nightgowns, and a box of Drews Chocolates.
That month several relatives and friends from the Dexter area came to see the new baby.
One day Leora churned four pounds of butter. Clabe helped Delbert begin to wire the house for electricity.
Clabe and Leora both had toothaches. He had a tooth pulled the next day. Leora waited until her jaw swelled, then had two teeth pulled the same day they got a Guernsey bull, and Leora churned two more pounds of butter.
Even with two sons still missing, life moved on, day after day.
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293 Records (Casualty) from the Mortuary Affairs and Casualty Support Division
Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II is available from Amazon in paperback and ebook, also as an audiobook, narrated by Paul Berge.
It’s also the story behind the Wilson brothers featured on the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn, Iowa. All five served. Only two came home.
Such a testament to the human spirit 🙂
Very poignant and a little surreal.
I couldn’t believe the family had been in limbo that long, but the documents that led up to finding Danny’s remains are also poignant. They will be included in posts the rest of the month.
There certainly was a lot of butter churning going on.
Indeed there was! As along as the cow gave milk, that chore had to be done! Amazing to me as well. I grew up on a farm, but we didn’t have milking cows.