RADIO TECHNICIAN
Staff Sgt. Leonard M. Curtis, son of Elmer Curtis and Mrs. Myrtle Curtis of this city, is a radio maintenance technician with the “Air Apaches” a veteran B-25 bomber-strafer unit in the southwest pacific, according to a dispatch received here from the 5th air force headquarters. After entering the army in April, 1942, Sergeant Curtis took radio school work at Scott Field, Ill., later being transferred to Columbia, S.C. He has been overseas for 16 months during which time his unit has made a remarkable record in the destruction of Jap airfields and shipping with their swift, low level bombing and strafing attacks. The Air Apaches are now spearheading the Fifth air force’s aerial offensive on the approaches to the Philippines.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Sept. 26, 1944
Leonard Myron Curtis was born May 11, 1912 to Elmer Andrew and Myrtle France Curtis. He died Mar. 18, 1989 and is buried in Cass Center Cemetery, Webster City, IA.
Sgt. Curtis served with the U.S. Army in World War II with the 498th Bombardment Squadron in the Pacific and in the Japan Air Offensive. He was decorated with the Bronze Star and Good Conduct medals, the Distinguished Unit Badge, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon.
Obituary: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Mar. 20, 1989
Leonard M. Curtis, 76, Webster City, died Saturday afternoon, March 18, at the Veteran’s Hospital in Des Moines, where he had been treated for cancer for three weeks.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, March 21, at 1:30 p.m. at the Foster Funeral Home, Rev. Charles Smith officiating. Burial will be in the Cass Center Cemetery north of Webster City. Visitation at Foster’s is after 3 p.m. today.
Leonard Myron Curtis, son of Elmer Andrew and Myrtle France Curtis, was born May 11, 1912, on a farm north of Webster City, and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1930. He attended the University of Iowa.
During the 1930s and 1940s, he umpired for the South Atlantic and Georgia-Florida Leagues before joining the American Association of Professional Baseball Clubs. He had attended baseball school in Hot Springs, Ark. In 1942, he joined the United States Air Force and served as a staff sergeant with the 498th Bombardment Squadron. During World War II, he served in the Pacific and in the Japan Air Offensive. He was decorated with the Bronze Star and Good Conduct medals, the Distinguished Unit Badge, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon. After his discharge in 1945, he resumed his umpiring career for a short time before returning to Webster City and purchasing Hammer’s Care.
He married Naomi Estelle Bradwell on Sept. 13, 1947 in Lake City. The couple farmed in the Mulberry Center Community of Blairsburg Township in 1950, and resided there until 1971, when Mr. Curtis retired from farming, and the family moved to Webster City.
Mr. Curtis is survived by his wife Naomi, Webster City; son Leonard M. Curtis II, Iowa City; daughter Jane Curtis, Hartford, Conn.; and a nephew, Gary Curtis, Webster City.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Marvin France Curtis.
Mr. Curtis was a member of the Webster City Country Club, the Iowa Golf Course Superintendent’s Association, the I-Club, American Legion Post 191, Webster City Moose Lodge, and was a former Elk’s Club member.
Source: ancestry.com
