Services Saturday For PFC. Gail Barnes
Graveside services for Private First Class W. Gail Barnes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Weaver Barnes of Lovilia, will be held in the Lovilia cemetery, Saturday, July 3, at 2 p.m.
Chester Bishop post of the American Legion will be in charge of the graveside services and present military honors for Pfc. Barnes. The Rev. Harold A. Varce, pastor of the Evangelical United Brethren Church will serve as chaplain and give the committal.
Lovilia business houses will close at 2 o’clock Saturday and remain closed during the services.
The body was returned to Lovilia on Burlington train No. 27 Tuesday morning. Members of the American Legion post met the train and escorted the body to the Zimmerman funeral chapel, where it will remain until the services Saturday.
The remains of Barnes had been interred in a temporary cemetery in New Guinea, and were returned to the United States on the U. S. Army transport, Lt. George W. G. Boyce.
Pfc. Barnes, serving with the infantry, was 27 years old when he was shot down by Japanese fire on May 18, 1944. He was killed in the fighting at Toem, New Guinea, in the Wadke-Toem-Sarmi-Maffin Bay operation.
Pfc. Barnes entered service at Camp Dodge, August 4, 1943, and was sent to Camp Fannin, Texas. There he was assigned to the 62nd Battalion of the 13th infantry regiment for training.
He was transferred to Ft. Ord, Calif., late in 1943, and then sent overseas to the Southwest Pacific area. He was in Australia a short time before being sent into the campaign for New Guinea.
Pfc. Barnes was last home on furlough in December, 1943, just prior to shipment overseas. The last letter received from him by his parents, told that he was at a rest camp in May. The drive in which he was killed began shortly after he wrote his last letter home.
Pfc. Barnes was born and reared in this community. He attended the Lovilia schools and graduated from the Lovilia high school in 1934.
He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Weaver Barnes of Lovilia, a sister Mildred, and a brother Herman of Albia, his wife Colleen, who has remarried, and many other relatives and friends.
Former service men are requested to meet at the American Legion hall at 1:30 o’clock Saturday, prior to going to the Zimmerman funeral home, where the funeral procession will be formed.
Source: The Lovilia Press, July 1, 1948 (photo included)
William Gail Barnes was born July 20, 1916 to Weaver and Mamie Richmond Barnes. He died May 18, 1944 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Lovilia, IA.
Pvt. Barnes served in World War II with the U.S, Army Co. B, 62nd Infantry Training Battalion and was KIA in action in Guam.
Source: ancestry.com
