Surnames: Waterman, Okray, Beeckler, Leicht

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 25 May 1944

Waterman, Ezra James (? - 12 May 1944)

Ezra James Waterman, second lieutenant in the air force and son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark Waterman of Granton, was killed in a plane crash in Hawaii on May 12. The parents have received the bare announcement from the war department, with the statement that a following letter will give details. The young man was a navigator. He had been in the air force a little less than two years, and has been out of the United States since March.

Ezra James Waterman was born in Chili, where his father was manager of the co-operative elevator. While he was still small the Watermans moved to Mosinee, and there James went to school, graduating from the high school. He attended the University of Wisconsin a year, and then worked for a public utility at Wausau, where he was at the time of his enlistment. He was 21 years of age.

The news occasioned a family gathering at the E. A. Beeckler home in Granton, which is also the Waterman home. Mr. Waterman was in western Nebraska, about his affairs as a traveling representative of a hardware chain and he hurried home. James sister Helene, Mrs. Ralph Okray, drove up from Madison, with her two children. James’ two aunts, Pearle and Daphne Beeckler were there, Pearle coming up from Vernon County, where she is a supervising teacher, and Daphne from her school work in Neillsville.

Also present were Mrs. George Leicht Wausau and her daughter Beverly, whose engagement to James Waterman had been announced at Kaster.