MELBOURNE:
Pvt. Wayne Spies of Camp Haan, Calif., spent two days visiting relatives and friends. Mrs. Spies returned home with Wayne after spending six weeks in California. Pvt. Spies has been in the Army since Christmas.
Source: LeMars Globe-Post, Thursday, May 27, 1943
NEWS OF THE MERRILL SERVICEMEN.
Wayne A. Spies, Cpl., an anti-aircraft gunner entered the service Christmas, 1942, trained at Camp Haan and went over seas in December, 1943. “Bud” is on New Guinea where he has seen some action.
Source: The LeMars Sentinel, Friday, April 14, 1944
IN UNIFORM
Cpl. Wayne A. Spies, whose wife lives at 1603 Pierce street, is now on Luzon. He is with the 161st anti-aircraft battalion and has served in New Guinea for one year and Australia for six months.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, August 2, 1945
IN UNIFORM
Cpl. Wayne A. Spies has landed in Yokohama, Japan, according to word received by his wife Florence, 1603 Pierce Street, and son, Daniel. Cpl. Spies, who was in Tokyo Bay V-J day, spent five months in Australia, 12 months in New Guinea and eight months on Luzon, liberating EPO dam, Manila. He was reared by Mr. and Mrs. O.W. Schindel of LeMars, Iowa.
Source: The Sioux City Journal-Tribune, September 18, 1945
His Obituary:
Wayne Allen Spies, 85, of Hinton died Thursday, April 27, 2006, at Indian Hills Nursing and Rehab Center following a brief illness.
Services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church in Sioux City, with the Rev. Roger Madden officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, with military rites conducted by American Legion Casper Post 477 of Hinton. Visitation will be 3 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 5 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.
Wayne Spies was born Aug. 30, 1920, in Plymouth County, Iowa, the son of William and Blanche (Greene) Spies. His mother died when Wayne was 10 days old, and he was raised by his aunt and uncle, Esther and Oscar Schindel. He attended rural schools in Plymouth County and graduated from Merrill High School.
He married Florence Pratt on Feb. 17, 1942, in South Sioux City. He then served in the U.S. Army during World War II from December 1942 to October 1945. He worked for the Farmers Co-op in Hinton for 12 years. He was the postmaster in Hinton from 1954 to 1959 and was a rural letter carrier from 1959 to 1984.
He was a member of the Iowa Association of Postmasters from 1954 to 1959 and National and State Rural Letter Carriers Association since 1959. He served as chairman of the State Convention of Rural Letter Carriers in 1967, 1974 and 1979 and as district president and secretary and county president and secretary of the Iowa Letter Carriers Association. In 1979, Wayne was named "Outstanding Rural Letter Carrier" for Iowa.
He was a 60-year member of American Legion Casper Post 477 of Hinton and had served as commander in 1947, 1948 and 1988. He had served as president and secretary of the Hinton Civic Community Club and served on the Hinton Community Scholarship Committee in 1986 and 1987. Wayne was a tenor in the Siouxland Four Barber Shop Quartet and sang when they won the Central States regional district contest in 1949.
Survivors include his wife, Florence of Hinton; a son, Daniel Spies and his wife, Marcia of Earlville, Ill.; a daughter, Ruth Laudon and her husband, James of Council Bluffs, Iowa; a stepbrother, Marvin Schindel of San Bernardino, Calif.; two half sisters, Norma Hartman and Ardyce Arndt and her husband, Don, all of Hinton; three grandchildren, Amy Karhliker and husband, Dennis, Brian Spies and Douglas Spies and his wife, Betsy; two stepgrandsons, Robert Philip and his wife, Jodi, John Philip and his wife, Stephanie; six great-grandchildren; and seven great-stepgrandchildren.
He was preceded in death by both sets of parents; a brother, Gordon Spies; a sister, Mildred Farmer; and a stepsister Betty Jane Sitzmann.
Pallbearers will be Douglas and Brian Spies, Mike Sitzmann, John and Robert Philip and Nicholas Spies.
Memorials may be directed to First United Methodist Church of Sioux City.
Source: ancestry.com
