Chicora woman remembers uncle who served,died WWII
Veterans Day is a time for remembering the fallen. But for one former Butler County resident, it took research to discover the uncle who made the ultimate sacrifice on the snowy battlefield of an Italian mountain.
When Maureen Easley was growing up in Chicora, she said, “My dad would sometimes talk about his younger brother who died in the war. Many times this would be on special holidays such as Veterans Day or Memorial Day.
“He would pull out a faded picture of his brother that would accompany his tears,” she said.
The picture was of a handsome young man with a half-smile and piercing eyes, wearing a military uniform.
Easley said, “I had never met my Uncle Merle. He died in 1945, and I wasn't born until 1953.
“My father died in 1973, while I was in college and took with him the few details he knew about his brother's death.”
And for Easley that's where the matter rested for many years as she raised her children and eventually retired. With more time on her hands, she said she again began to be curious about the uncle she never knew.
Easley said, “One of my older sisters sent me his obituary from the Butler Eagle that was dated Feb. 28, 1949.
“From this article I was able to ascertain that Uncle Merle had been a ski trooper in World War II, a fact that was striking to me since I had not known anyone that skied while growing up in Butler County in the 1960s,” Easley said.
She read that he was with the 86th Mountain Infantry, 10th Division.
“That was a starting point. I got in contact with the Denver Public Library. A woman named Keli Schmid was most helpful in getting me the information that I needed,” she said.
Schmid is the archivist for the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center.
Schmid said, “The center is dedicated to the 10th Mountain Division. It was established by 10th Mountain Division veterans.”
A full story appears in Sunday's Butler Eagle.
