Memorial Service for Woodyard
to Be Held Sunday
Memorial service for Second Lt. Wayland D. Woodyard, 26, son of Mrs. Louis C. Friedel, 302 Commercial street, who was killed in the Pacific in August, will be held at 3 p. m. Sunday at First Presbyterian church.
Dr. H. E. Dierenfield, pastor, will conducted the services for the marine lieutenant who was killed during one of his first aerial combat experiences.
Lieutenant Woodyard, according to word from his commanding officer to his mother, was buried in the locality where death occurred.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Thursday, October 26, 1944, Page 5
Grave of Waterloo Marine,
Lt. Wayland Woodyard, on Peleliu
Palm trees riddled by battlefire, shown in the background of the above picture of the cemetery where Lt. Woodyard is buried on the small Island, with two marines standing guard at the graves of their buddies.
A marine corps private is shown kneeling at the grave of Second Lt. Wayland D. Woodyard, of Waterloo, who is buried in the first cemetery of the armed forces on Peleliu island, Palau group.
The picture was received by Lieutenant Woodyard’s mother, Mrs. Louis Friedl, 302 Commercial street, from Lt. Col. S. V. Sabol, commanding officer of the U. S. marine corps.
“The meaning of the marine kneeling at the grave,” Colonel Sabol wrote, “is to symbolize that the marine corps will ever remember and hold immortal a comrade who gave his life for his country on the field of battle and to again dedicate itself to its greater efforts in the cause for which he died.”
The grave of an unidentified marine is show directly behind the grave where Lieutenant Woodyard is buried.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Sunday, March 11, 1945, Page 6 (two grave photos included)
Elks to Present Three Medals
in Memorial Rites
Sunday Service, at 2:30 P. M.,
Is Open to Public.
Next of kin of three members of the Waterloo Elks lodge who have died in the service of their country will be awarded the B. P. O. Elks Medal of Valor at the annual memorial services of the lodge to be held at 2:30 p. m. Sunday, open to the public.
The medals, such as pictured above, will be given survivors of Capt. Ward S. Williams, Jr., killed May 19 when a patrol plane in which he was flying as co-pilot crashed on a flight near Cherry Point, N. C.; Lt. Wayland Woodyard, killed in action Oct. 8 while serving in the Pacific; and Maj. John C Hultquist, reported missing in action since the fall of the Philippines in May, 1942, and officially declared dead Sept. 28.
Rev. Frank A. Court, Duluth, Minn., formerly pastor of Grace Methodist church here, will give the memorial address.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Friday, December 01, 1945, Page 12
Body of Lt. W. D. Woodyard
Due Monday
The body of Second Lt. Wayland D. Woodyard, 28 when he was killed in action Sept. 18, 1944, in marine action on Peleliu island in the Palau group in the Pacific, is being returned here for reburial and will arrive in Waterloo Monday at 10:15 a. m. on the Chicago Great Western railroad. The body is to be taken to O’Keefe & Towne funeral home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
Lieutenant Woodyard’s body has been in the armed forces cemetery on Peleliu since his death.
Information received by his mother, Mrs. Louis Friedl, 302 Commercial street, in April following her son’s death, stated that he was killed by machinegun fire while he was attempting to destroy a Ja pillbox three hours afer the invasion of Peleliu had begun.
For this action he received the Purple Heart.
Last fall Mrs. Friedl also received posthumousoly the presidential unit citation with one star; the Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal and the Victory medal.
Lieutenant Woodyard enlisted in the marine corps in April, 1942, and received boot training at San Diego, Cal, where he remained for a year as drill instructor before being accepted for officer’s training at Quantico, Va.
He was formerly employed here at the Rath Packing Co. and by the Illinois Central railroad.
The deceased by born on July 7, 1916 in Waterloo, the son of Otto and Lovisa Woodyard.
Formerly an usher at First Presbyterian church, he was also an active member of the Waterloo Elks club and the Y. M. C. A., and was an outstanding football player at East high school for three years, until graduation in 1936.
His father preceded him in death in 1932.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Sunday, December 12, 1948, Page 7 (one photo included)
DEATHS
LT. WAYLAND D. WOODYARD
Funeral services will be Wednesday at 3 p. m. at O’Keefe & Towne funeral home for Lt. Wayland D. Woodyard, whose body arrived in Waterloo Monday. Lieutenant Woodyard was killed in action on Peleliu island in the Palau group in the Pacific. Officiating will be Rev. H. E. Dierenfield, pastor of First Presbyterian church. Burial will be in Elmwood cemetery.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Monday, December 13, 1948, Page 2
NOTE: Lt. Woodyard’s gravestone at Elmwood Cemetery, Waterloo, gives his death date as September 18, 1944.
