Patriotic Groups Will Attend Memorial for War Victim
Service for Searle to Be Held on Sunday at Baptist Church
Patriotic groups of Mason City are planning to attend first memorial service for a Mason Cityan killed in World War II when such a service is held Sunday night at 7:30 at the Baptist church for Erwin LeRoy Searle. Searle was killed in the Jap attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, and his death has been confirmed by his brother, Harlan, who was also stationed at Pearl Harbor. He has written that “Erwin died easily and quickly.”
One other Mason Cityan, Wayne Carroll, has been killed in action. He also lost his life in the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor.
The memorial will begin with obsequial music by Mrs. Roy Servison. The Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary will attend the services Sunday. Members will meet at the hall at 7 o’clock Sunday night under the leadership of Commander H. J. Reiber and Auxiliary President Mrs. Arnold Tilton to attend.
Members of the North Iowa Navy Mothers club will meet at the Lapiner garage at 7 o’clock Sunday night and will proceed from there to the Baptist church for the services.
The order of service is as follows: Hymn, “America;” the reading of the obituary; scripture selections; solo, “There Is No Death,” by Miss Ellen Smith; prayer; anthem, “Crossing the Bar,” by the First Baptist youth chorus; defense bond offering for Larry Dean Searle; remarks by Commander Max Wells; “In My Sunday School Class,: H. A. Phillips; “Hardships Make Heroes,” the Rev. J. Lee Lewis; solo, “God Bless America,”
Sung by James Archie, with the war-time arrangement of the chorus; national anthem, “Star Spangled Banner,” and benediction.
The war-time chorus reads:
God bless our soldier boys,
Boys that we love
Be thou near them and cheer them,
Fill their hearts with Thy courage and love.
In America, on the ocean,
In the islands of the sea,
God bless our soldier boys,
Where’er they be.
The hero’s son is 10 months old, Larry Dean Searle, and it was the pastor’s suggestion that sympathy take concrete form in purchasing a defense bond for the child.
Searle joined the navy in 1938, and after training at the Great Lakes naval training station, Great Lakes, Ill., was assigned to his ship. His rating was that of a petty officer.
He was killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7.
Source: The Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Saturday, January 17, 1942 (photo included)
Petty Officer Searle served aboard the USS California (BB-44) and was KIA on Dec. 7, 1941 in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He has a cenotaph in Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
