WESLEY NEWS.
Lawrence Goetz left Wednesday morning for New Orleans. He is in the Army Air Corps and had been on a fifteen day furlough, which he spent with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Goetz.
Source: The Titonka Topic, Thursday, September 11, 1941
CALLED TO WEST COAST—SON INJURED IN FALL
WESLEY—Mr. and Mrs. Mike Goetz left early Monday morning by train for March Field, near Los Angeles, in response to a message that their son, Corporal Lawrence Goetz was seriously injured in a fall. Lawrence has been in the Army for more than a year, first being at Chanute Field at Rantoul, Ill., later being transferred to New Orleans, and since early January has been at March Field.
Source: The Titonka Topic, April 2, 1942
L. GOETZ DIES IN CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE, Cal., (UP)—The body of Lawrence J. Goetz, 23, soldier at March Field, was sent Thursday to his home at Wesley, Iowa, for burial. Goetz died of injuries suffered when he fell from a tractor towing an airplane.
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WESLEY—Lawrence Goetz, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Goetz, joined the Army in January, 1941, and was transferred to March Field in January, 1942. His parents left for California early Monday morning when notified of his critical injury, but arrived two hours after his death.
Lawrence, Wesley’s first World War II casualty, is survived by two brothers and four sisters.
Funeral services will be held at the St. Joseph’s church in Wesley, Monday morning at 9 o’clock.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, April 2, 1942
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)
80 Kossuth Men Officially Listed As Casualties In War
FIRST RELEASE OF STATE HISTORICAL DEATH SUMMARIES
Eighty men from Kossuth county lost their lives while in the service of their country in World War II.
KOSSUTH'S WAR DEAD.
Goetz, Lawrence, Cpl.
Died of injuries suffered in a fall from tractor plane, Apr. 1, 1942. Parents: Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Goetz, Wesley, Ia.
Source: The Algona Upper DesMoines, Tuesday, January 22, 1946 – page 7.
Lawrence John Goetz was born July 28, 1918 to Michael Philip and Anna Maria Schrauth Goetz. He died Apr. 1, 1942 and is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery, Wesley, IA.
Cpl. Goetz served in World War II with the U.S. Army Air Corps 21st Bomb Squadron, 30th Bomb Group.
Source: ancestry.com
