5 In Wright County to Be Inducted in Draft Army Jan. 13.
CLARION—The Wright county local draft board reports 14 young men have volunteered for their one year’s Army service to begin immediately instead of waiting for the draft.
Five will be sent Jan. 13, to Omaha, Nebr., to be inducted into the Army.
Those who will go are Oliver Sampson of Eagle Grove, William K. Wiser of Goldfield, Otto H. Wolf of Eagle Grove, Leo E. Martin of Clarion, and Morris F. Drury of Rowan. The substitutes chose are Blueford L. Cooper of Galt and Richard S. Kingsley of Eagle Grove.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, January 9, 1941
HERE and THERE
ROWAN—John Bottom and Morris Drury left Des Moines to enter the coast guard in the state of Washington.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, Saturday, December 20, 1941
COAST GUARD REPORTS IOWA YOUTH LOST
Ketchikan, Alaska—(AP)—Coast guard headquarters reported Saturday, Morris Frank Drury, 22, who enlisted from Rowan, Ia., a month ago, had been lost off a patrol boat. His body was not recovered.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, February 1, 1942
ROWAN MAN IS LOST AT SEA
Drury Is Believed Blown Overboard Off U.S. Patrol Cutter
ROWAN—Mr. and Mrs. Frank Drury, Rowan, were notified Saturday that their son, Morris Frank Drury, was lost overboard from a U. S. patrol cutter operating in the Pacific off the west coast of the United States.
In a telegram to Mrs. Drury, Rear Admiral R. R. Waesche, commandant, U. S. coast guard, informed her that “the weather was clear. A strong southeast gale had been blowing making a choppy sear. The commanding officer of the cutter reports that Morris came on deck at 5:30 p.m. (Jan. 28.)
“Evidently while making his way forward to the deckhouse he fell or was thrown overboard by the motion of the sea. Upon missing him, the vessel was turned about and the area searched. All during the following day a search was conducted without results.
“He was well liked by his shipmates and they join me in sending our sympathy to you in this, your great hour of distress.
“He died honorably in the service of his country during a great crisis.”
The Rowan youth is survived by his parents, two brothers, Edward of Mason City and Lloyd, at home; and his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Nelson of Clarion and Mrs. Ed Drury of Dows.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, February 2, 1942
TO HOLD SERVICES FOR MORRIS DRURY
ROWAN—Memorial services will be held in the Rowan Methodist church Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2:30 p.m. for Morris Frank Drury, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Drury, who was lost overboard from a U. S. patrol cutter operating in the Pacific off the west coast of the United States.
Source: Mason City Globe-Gazette, Thursday, Feb. 5, 1942 (photo included)
Morris Frank Drury was born Feb. 28, 1919 to Frank William and Grace Pearl Nelson Drury. He died Jan. 28, 1942 and has a cenotaph in Graceland Cemetery, Rowan, IA. He is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Morris served in World War II with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Sources: ancestry.com; abmc.gov
