Markeson VARLAND

VARLAND, SWIFT, QUARLES, JENSON, CIBELIUS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/25/2016 at 23:37:23

18 December 1917 ---- 10 January 1992

WILLIAMSBURG, VA — Capt. Markeson Varland, native of Illinois and retired Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, died Friday, Jan. 10. Capt. Varland had been a Williamsburg resident for the past 10 years. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Varland patrolled the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea during World War II aboard the USS Mackenzie. Varland was serving on the Mackenzie when it sank a German submarine. He later moved to the USS Stevenson, which he served as commander. Capt. Varland helped lead the final strikes against Japan.

After World War II, Capt. Varland served as flag secretary and aide to the Commander Battleship Cruisers, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, before taking command of the USS Henley during the Korean War. In 1962 he led the Troop-Transport Monrovia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Before his retirement in 1970, Capt. Varland earned his masters degree in Personnel Administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Active in civic and social groups, Capt. Varland had served as vice president of the Norfolk Kiwanis Club and was the co-chairman of the Kingsmill Odd Lot Golfing Group.

Capt. Varland was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Virginia Swift Varland. He is survived by four children, his daughter, Patricia Varland Quarles of Galax; and three sons, Steven Richard Varland of Raleigh, N.C., Scott Jay Varland of Louisville, Ky., and Mark Swift Varland of Richmond. He also is survived by two sisters, Joan Jenson of Maple Plain, Minn., and Sela Dell Cibelius of Rockford, Ill.; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in Bucktrout Funeral Home, where the family will receive friends after the service. Burial will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, with full military honors.

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[lived in early 1920's in Belmond, Wright County, Iowa]