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Subject: [OHFranklin] WAR DEATHS, 1944
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 17:57:19 EST

>From the Columbus Dispatch, dated Sunday, Nov. 26, 1944:
(Pictures included)

WAR WOUNDS FATAL TO TWO COLUMBUS SOLDIERS;
FORMER RESIDENT KILLED

Deaths of two Columbus infantry men--one in France and other
in an army hospital in this country--were reported Saturday by
their families, while word of the death of a former local boy in
the Southwest Pacific also reached friends here.

Shot twice in the head by a sniper during action in France on
July 26, PFC. RALPH H. WILLIAMS, age 20, of 584 Shepard
St., was returned to the United States five weeks ago and died
Saturday morning in Nichols General Hospital, Louisville, Ky.

A former employee of the Kroger Packing Co, he was the husband
of MRS. BETTY COLLIEN WILLIAMS and the son of MRS. ELSIE
WILLIAMS, both of the Shephard St. address. He entered the
service in November, 1943, and went overseas the following March,
participating in the first invasion of France on June 6.

Besides his wife and mother, he leaves four sisters, MRS. LUCILLE
BLACK, MRS. NANNIE WATSON, MISS MARGARET and MISS
CAROL WILLIAMS, and three brothers, EDWARD and NORMAN,
Columbus and Marine CPL. ERNEST WILLIAMS, now servine in
Panama.

Funeral services, in charge of the O.R. WOODYARD CO., will take
place Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Luthern Evangelistic Church,
106 S. Gift. St. with burial in Eastlawn Cemetery.



VETERAN OF 3 CAMPAIGNS

PVT. EDWARD M. REYNOLDS, 31, veteran of the African and
Sicilian campaigns, died Nov. 6 of wounds suffered in France
Sept. 12, according to a War Department message received by
his wife, MRS. ANNA HURON RAYNOLDS, 751 E. Main St.

The infantryman, who had been overseas since August, 1943, was
previously wounded in Italy in November, 1943. He attended South
High School and was employed as a truck driver for the Rehls
Trucking Co. when he entered sevice March 8, 1943.

He was the son of MRS. MINNIE REYNOLDS, 395 Markison Ave.,
who survives with his wife and three sisters, MRS. HELEN LECHLER,
MRS. GARNET DAVIS, and MRS, MARY BALZAN, all of Columbus.
Memorial services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the
Washington Ave. United Brethern Church.



PRISONER OF GERMANS

Columbus friends of MR. and MRS. HOWARD GIFFORD of Toldeo,
former Bexley residents, learned this week that their son, Marine
SGT. HOWARD GIFFORD, JR., 20, was killed in action in the
Southwest Pacific in September. He attended St. Catherine's School
and entered the service two and a half years ago. The Giffords
moved to Toledo about eight years ago when Mr. Gifford was mode
district manager for the Gulf Oil Co. there.



Meanwhile PVT. GERALD G. SMITH, 30, previously reported
missing in action in Belguim since Sept. 6 was reported a prisoner
of the Germans in a message from the Red Cross to his wife,
MRS. FRANCES SMELTZER SMITH, 1308 E. Livingston Ave.

He entered service in October, 1943, while employed at the
Curtiss-Wright plant and has been srving overseas with an infantry
unit since last May.

Joyce/Columbus

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