MISSING SOLDIER REPORTED DEAD
Memorial Rites to Be Held Sunday
Pvt. Francis Dale Bird, 20, reported missing, was killed in action at Bougainville [France], according to notice received Tuesday by his mother, Mrs. Mary A. Bird, 3753 Seventh avenue.
The war department in the official notice to Mrs. Bird said he was killed on March 18, just a year and a month after he had entered the service.
Memorial services for Pvt. Bird will be conducted at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Westminster Presbyterian church at Twenty-eighth street and Third avenue. The Rev. Earl Fisher, pastor of the church, will conduct the services.
Born at Oakland, Pvt. Bird had been a resident of Pottawattamie county all his life, and attended Rue school in Council Bluffs. Before entering the armed services on Feb. 17, 1943, he was employed by the Pullman company.
Besides his mother he is survived by two brothers, Leslie, with the army “somewhere in Italy,” and Charlie, at home; three sisters, Mrs. Eva Blackman of Mapleton, Mrs. June Price and Mrs. Dora Adkins, both of Council Bluffs.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Tuesday, April 28, 1944, Page 8
EDITORIAL – THREE HEROES
Perhaps it was because they all came at one time, on a single day, in fact, that Friday’s paper brought the war closer to us than at any time since the third battalion of the 168th suffered so heavily at Kaiserine pass.
But to us the announcement that Maj. Bob Blaylock, Lt. Leland Evers and Pvt. Francis Dale Bird had been killed in action was a shock which will be hard to overcome.
Three deaths from the war in a town the size of Council Bluffs and all announced on the same day really bring the war home.
The writer was not personally acquainted with either Lt. Evers or Pvt. Bird, but Bob Blaylock was a personal friend. He knew him as an idealist, who sought and earned his position in the army even before the war took us into the midst of the carnage.
As we said, we did not know Lt. Evers and Pvt. Bird, but from accounts we have heard of them, they were different only in branch of service and in rank. They too had fought for an ideal and they gave their lives for that ideal, not willingly, perhaps, for no one likes to die, but nevertheless faithful to their trust and to their training in the Americans spirit.
It is hard to lose such men as these, boys whom the city has watched grow into manhood, and whom we have held in such high hopes.
Our sympathy goes out to Mr. and Mrs. John F. Blaylock, to Albert Evers, and to Mrs. Mary Bird, the parents, and to Mrs. Bob Blaylock. They have suffered a tremendous loss, but we too feel that we have suffered a loss too.
And every time we hear of another of our boys gone in defense of the liberties in which they believed, it will be a personal loss, for one more future citizen has left us.
To all men and women who have suffered such losses in the past, and to those who will suffer them in the future, we offer our heartfelt sympathy.
We have all lost something precious when they die.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Wednesday, April 29, 1944, Page 4
DECLARED DEAD
Pvt. Francis Bird, 20, reported missing, is now reported killed in action at Bougainville.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Sunday, April 30, 1944, Page 3
RETURN BODIES OF FOUR COUNTY MEN
110 Iowa War Dead in Pacific Shipment
Bodies of four Pottawattamie county soldiers, including Pfc. Louis A. Profeda, former Abraham Lincoln high school football captain, are being returned from the Pacific aboard the army transport Lieutenant George W. G. Boyce, the department of the army announced Monday.
Others from this county are Pfc. Francis Dale Bird of Council Bluffs, Pfc. Clarence R. King of Carson and Pfc. Herman E. Staub of Avoca.
A total of 110 Iowa bodies are on the Boyce, which is carrying remains of 4,459 Americans who lost their lives in the Pacific campaigns. The ship is enroute to San Francisco from Manila.
Killed at Bougainville
Pfc. Bird, son of Mrs. Mary A. Bird, 2753 Seventh avenue, was killed in action on Bougainville on March 17, 1944, just a year and a month after he entered the army.
Born at Oakland, Pfc. Bird lived all his life in Pottawattamie county. Before entering the army on Feb. 17, 1943, he was employed by the Pullman company.
Surviving besides his mother are two brothers, Leslie and Charlie, both of Council Bluffs; and three sisters, Mrs. Eva Blackman of Mapleton, Mrs. June Price and Mrs. Dora Adkins, both of Council Bluffs.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Sunday, May 30, 1948, Page 3
Obituaries
PVT. FRANCIS D. BIRD
The body of Pvt. Francis Dale Bird, 20, 2753 Seventh avenue, killed in action in the Bougainville campaign, March 17, 1944, will arrive in Council Bluffs Tuesday evening and be taken to Woodring’s funeral home.
Pvt. Bird was born at Oakland, and resided in Council Bluffs at the time of his induction in February 1943.
Surviving are his mother, Mrs. Mary Ann Bird, two brothers, Leslie and Charles, all of Council Bluffs; three sisters, Mrs. Evelyn Blackford of Mapleton, Mrs. Dora Atkins and Mrs. June Price of Council Bluffs.
Funeral will be Thursday at 2 p.m. at Woodring’s chapel with Veterans of Foreign Wars post No. 737 in charge. Burial will be in Cedar Lawn cemetery.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Tuesday, June 29, 1948, Page 6 (photo included)
TO ATTEND FUNERAL
Members of the VFW auxiliary will meet Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Woodring’s funeral home to attend services for Pvt. Francis D. Bird, son of Mrs. Mary Ann Bird. Members are to wear caps.
Death Notices
MILITARY RITES
BIRD, Pvt. Francis D., age 20, killed in action on Bougainville in 1942.
Military rites Thursday, 2 p.m. at Woodring’s chapel and at Cedar Lawn cemetery with V.F.W. post No. 737 in charge. The body is at the Woodring funeral home.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Tuesday, June 29, 1948, Pages 6 & 18
Francis Dale Bird was born Feb. 13, 1924 to Ira and Mary Strong Bird. He died Mar. 17, 1944 and is buried in Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Council Bluffs, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
