Marion residents help return lost dog tags to veteran’s family

From left teacher Gary Ewert, MHS student Cameron White and Custodian Jane Whitwell all had a hand in returning dog tags from WWII to the family of the soldier they belonged to. Laura Fowler Paulus / Free PressWhile teachers typically strive to give memorable lessons, once in awhile, a really great one comes along. This happened recently at Marion High School.

Custodian Jane Whitwell had dog tags she had picked up years before. She could not even remember how long it had been or where she found them. She guessed that she had most likely gotten them at an auction over 20 years ago, but she had no idea which state she had even gotten them in since she was originally from Pitcher, Oklahoma but now lives in Kansas.

“They had been sitting on my dresser, and I needed to get rid of them. So I thought that would be a great project for a class.” said Whitwell.

She took them to history teacher Gary Ewert to see if he would be interested in having his students see if they could locate the person or family. He decided to take the challenge and try to track down the owner of the dog tags.

“We were not sure how old the dog tag was. To start, I did an online search and found a site that helped me identify that the tag from the WWII era by the type of information and placing stamped on the tag,”said Ewert.

Ewert shared the story as well as the information he had found regarding the tags with his American History class. He offered extra credit to anyone who wanted to continue looking for more information. Two students rose to the occasion, and one student came through with answers.

Cameron White and her mom Amy Brunner-White spent Spring Break using the internet to find the former WWII soldier named Charles A. Murray. They found that he had lived in Joplin, Missouri and was buried in Galena, Kansas.

“My mom is a funeral director so she knows a website that you can use to look up headstones of people. So after we found the name of the person, she took it and then we found someone that was around the area that she (Whitwell) thought she got it from,” said White.

So, on Saturday, March 30, Ewert posted a picture of the dog tag to his Facebook page with the information they had. He tagged several of his family members that lived in SE Kansas or SW Missouri, and asked them to share the post in hopes of getting the tag to the family of this veteran.

The post had been shared over 90 times by Sunday evening and one person had researched and posted an obituary for Charles A. Murray, who had died in 1987 and was a WWII vet. In the obituary was the listing of survivors.

“One person said that two of those had Facebook accounts. Several other people had been sharing and commenting that they would contact people from the Galena area to see if they knew these people. I got on Facebook and traced one of the daughters who lives in the Kansas City area, Charlene Belgiere. I Facebook messaged Charlene with some details and my phone number on Monday, April 1 and asked if this might be a connection,” said Ewert. “On Monday afternoon, Charlene called me and she confirmed that her stepmom had lived in Quapaw, Oklahoma and that the family had sold her place when she and her dad moved to Galena.”

This would make sense that Whitwell obtained the dog tag from a sale in that area so many years ago. Pitcher and Quapaw are just a few miles apart.

The happy ending was a fun surprise to all involved.

“I think it’s great. It’s very cool and they worked real hard. I couldn’t find anything, but they did,” said Whitwell.

In addition to her extra credit points, White enjoyed knowing they helped the man’s family.

“It’s really nice have the family have them (the tags) after not having them,” said White.

All are excited to get the tags reunited with the daughter.

“Charlene said the family had some things from her dad’s service in WWII, but no dog tags. The dog tag is being mailed to her. I am so proud of Cameron for taking an interest and doing the ground work to get started on finding the family,” said Ewert.

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