Goetz, Lawrence J. 1918-1942

GOETZ

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Volunteer (email)
Date: 4/20/2013 at 12:59:44

LAWRENCE GOETZ MEETS DEATH AT MARCH FIELD, CAL.

WESLEY—Military funeral services were held Monday morning at nine o’clock at St. Joseph’s Catholic church in Wesley for Wesley’s first World War II casualty, Corporal Lawrence John Goetz, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Goetz. Rev. L. N. Klein officiated at the requiem high mass. Lawrence died Wednesday morning [April 1, 1942] at 6:15 just two hours before his parents arrived, from injuries sustained when he fell from a tractor pulling a plane at March Field, California.

Lawrence Goetz was born July 28, 1918, on a farm southeast of Wesley. He attended the Wesley rural schools and was graduated from the Wesley high school in May, 1936.

He enlisted in January, 1941, in Des Moines, the second youngest man from Wesley to enlist, and he attended an army school at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Ill., for six months before being transferred to New Orleans, and thence to March Field in February, 1942, where he was stationed as a ground aviation mechanic in the Army Air Corps.

The body arrived in Wesley Saturday at the farm home of his parents, five miles northwest of Wesley. He leaves besides his parents, two brothers, Philip and Clarence, four sisters, Gladys, Irene, Shirley and Bernice, and his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Goetz, of Wesley.

Burial, with members of Andrews Post No. 428 of the American Legion taking part, was made in St. Joseph’s cemetery. Pallbearers were Lawrence Youngwirth, Lawrence Hildman, Albert Lickteig, Richard Cosgrove, John Pfeffer and Nate Studer. Private Don Lickteig of Fort Snelling, a high school classmate of Lawrence, was an honorary pall bearer.

Among those attending the funeral from a distance were Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Schrauth of Geneva, Ill., Mrs. Gertrude Dose of Lostant, Ill., Frank Goetz and two daughters, Rose and Margaret and son Frank Jr., and Angeline Newbauer, all of Elma, Mrs. Geo. Hauptman of Charles City, Mrs. Albert Hoffer of Waterloo, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Ricke of Williams, Mrs. William Ward of Titonka, and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Wolfe, of Burt.

Source: The Titonka Topic, Thursday, April 9, 1942 (photo included)

Kossuth Obituaries maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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