FENTON SOLDIER KILLED IN ITALY
S. Sgt. Willard Ranney Was in Invasion Force
Fenton—Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Ranney, who live on a farm near here, received a message from the War Department Thursday evening that their son, S. Sgt. Willard Ranney, 24, was killed in action in Italy Jan. 13. No further details were given.
Willard entered the service in April, 1941, receiving his first training at Camp Claiborne, La. Soon after Pearl Harbor he was transferred to Fort Dix, N.J., and from there he went to Belfast, Ireland, landing there Jan. 26, 1942.
Sgt. Ranney was in a hospital in North Africa part of last October and all of November, suffering with jaundice. He went back to the front Dec. 1, and was with the Expeditionary Force in Europe.
He has a brother, Arlo, living at home.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, February 4, 1944
Willard Ranney, Fenton, Killed In Action
Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Ranney, of Fenton, are in receipt of word from the War Department that their son, Staff Sergeant Willard Ranney, was killed in action in Italy on January 13th. Willard is the first casualty from the Fenton neighborhood. He was one of the first inductees in the 1941 call and had been overseas for more than a year.
Source: Algona Upper Des Moines, February 15, 1944 (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.
Ranney, Willard E., S/Sgt.
Killed in invasion of Italy 1-13-44.
Parents: Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Ranney, Fenton, Ia.
Source: The Algona Upper DesMoines, Tuesday, January 22, 1946 – page 7.
Willard Edwin Ranney was born July 18, 1914 to Orvie J. and Bettie Caroline Peterson Ranney. He died Jan. 13, 1944 and is buried in Fenton Township Cemetery, Lone Rock, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
