Obituaries |
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LeRoy
Warren Keizer
LeRoy Warren Keizer, age 24, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1094th Signal Company, USAAF, died early in the morning of December 6, 1944. Japanese troops hidden in a small plot of Leyte Island’s jungle made a silent knife and bayonet dawn attack on his outfit, slaying 90 percent of the officers and 60 percent of the enlisted personnel. Born August 16, 1920 in Plymouth County, IA, LeRoy Keizer was the son of Gerben Jr. and Amy Lucille (Darville) Keizer. He attended elementary school in Plymouth County, then at Fairview, S.D. when his parents moved to an Iowa farm across the Sioux River from that town. The family later moved to Hawarden IA, where he graduated from High School, having participated in 1935 and 1936 classes and activities, during which he excelled in athletics and enjoyed the declamatory class. He was one of the leading characters in the class play, “Tiger House” and also was elected Class President and Class Treasurer. LeRoy was a cheerful, hard worker very much loved by his family consisting of mother, father, older brother Eugene, and younger siblings Doris and Milton Keizer. He joined the Methodist Church as a teenager, became an Epworth League member having perfect attendance, and later was an instructor for a class of young churchgoers. An excellent ball player, he pitched both baseball and softball and was an outstanding batter. LeRoy was skilled with either a drafting pen or paintbrush, as for example the large “GK Feeds” sign that hung on the exterior of the Hawarden Feed Mill for many years. Had he survived WWII, LeRoy intended to join his father in business at the mill for some time. Also, after college, wedding bells were to ring for him and his fiancé Blanche Hawkins, the daughter of his mother’s childhood friend…a hoped-for event in both mothers’ hearts, but never to be realized. Studies at Iowa State College gained LeRoy a B.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1943. He also participated in ballgames there, playing for a Ward team. Organizations he joined at Ames were A.I.E.E. Technical Society, Student branch; Honor Fraternity--Ward Key; and YMCA. He participated in Ward Executive Council, Ward System, Ward Athletic Council (President as a Junior), Ward News, Sports Editor, Student Activities Council, Independent Party Council, Intramural Board, and R.O.T.C. He entered military service after graduation and was schooled in Radar and Radio Communications before shipping overseas to serve his country. Lt. Keizer chose the United States Army Air Force over other wartime options offered him…at RCA and Naval Research, both of which listed him among the top handful of U.S. graduates his Senior year. He put himself at risk in doing so, and that risk was further compounded by a “switch” with another officer who became ill on the voyage to Leyte Island in the Philippines. Instead of receiving the communications aboard ship, LeRoy was assigned to the shore party. There, in a supposedly “cleared” area, he and his men set up camp on the only partly-dry, slight hump of land left near some Army artillery and infantry encampments. Another officer shared the tent with him, and became a wheelchair-bound survivor as a result of paralyzing stab wounds to his back, but was able to personally relate to LeRoy’s father the manner of his death. Leroy Warren Keizer was laid to rest in Hawarden, IA’s Grace Hill Cemetery February 11, 1945, at the right side of his father’s chosen burial plot. Gerben Keizer Jr. joined him there in 1970. In 1998 Amy Keizer was returned to earth at the left side of her husband. LeRoy’s marker is a white stone like so many other military white grave markers in Grace Hill. It is a well-cut, clean stone and a bright, sun-lit one…just like his life. Submitted by Milton L. Keizer, 2004 |
