Four Seaman of Sioux City Area Are Reported Missing in Action by Navy
Sidney Blackford, right, and Jonas Lindstrom, left, became buddies when they met at a naval training station and found that each was from Sioux City. They finished training together and were assigned to the same ship. Both have been reported missing in action.
Two Sioux Cityans and two brothers of Cherokee, sailors in the navy, have been reported missing in action by the navy department.
Sidney Blackford, son of Mr. and Mrs. Guy L. Blackford, 2210 W. Lunah Avenue and Jonas Lindstrom, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Lindstrom, 4101 Madison Street, are the Sioux Cityans. The Cherokee brothers are O.C. and Harold McManus, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.M. McManus.
The Sioux Cityans both were 20 years old. Jonas was graduated from Central High School and Sidney attended Salix High School. Parents of the men received telegrams from the navy department with the news that the seaman were missing.
O.C. McManus, 27, was a painter second class. He joined the navy August 16, 1936. He was transferred to the Houston in 1940.
Harold McManus, 22, graduated from Wilson High School at Cherokee in 1938, when he won the state high school wrestling title at 155 pounds. He joined the navy March 12, 1940.
Among members of the McManus family are one other son, Roy of Cherokee and five daughters, Ethel Hazelene, Doradean and Gladys Witte, all of Cherokee and Mrs. Gertrude Howard of Tekamah, Nebraska.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, March 16, 1942 (photo included)
War Prisoner
Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Blackford, 614 Sioux City, have received word through the Red Cross that their eldest son, Sidney E. Blackford, seaman second class, U.S.N. is a Japanese prisoner of war in Murmein, Burma. Sidney enlisted in the navy in June, 1940 and had been officially declared missing since February 28, 1942, when his ship, the cruiser Houston, was lost in the battle of Java. The card to his parents was written in his own handwriting and stated that he was anxious to hear from home.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, December 27, 1943 (photo included)
Sidney Earl Blackford was born July 29, 1919 to Guy Loren and Jennie Letitia Kinkaid Blackford. He died Mar. 19, 1970 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Sioux City, IA.
Petty Officer Blackford served in World War II with the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Houston (CA-30) and was captured by the Japanese after the sinking of his ship. He spent 22 months in prison camps.
Source: ancestry.com
