Surnames: Heart, Fecker, Hutchins

----Source: Abbotsford Tribune (Abbotsford, Clark County, Wis.) 07/22/1943

Heart, William Wallace (29 May 1920 - 1943)

No detailed information concerning the death of Pvt. William Heart in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines has come. His mother, Mrs. John Fecker, had received word on Jan. 29 that he was a prisoner of war and on July 15 came the news of his death.

William Wallace Heart was born May 29, 1920, at Fairchild, Wash. When only about a year and a half old, the family moved to Colby, Wis. He received his elementary education in the Rusk and Riverside schools and attended the Colby high school.

Six years ago the Fecker family moved to Abbotsford and in the fall of that year Billy went to Iron River where he spent a year in a CCC camp.

On June 14, 1940, while in Chicago, he enlisted in the air corps and received his training at McChord field, Washington. The end of October of that year he was one of 2,000 men who left for the Philippines. Pvt. Heart sailed on the U.S.S. Coolidge and wrote a leter enroute which he mailed at Honolulu.

There was no opportunity for him to write again until Jan. 24. Another chance came on Feb. 5, both letters being received by his mother on April 1. Pvt. Heart was in charge of a 50-calibre machine gun and was proud to be among "McArthur’s magnificents."

After the fall of Corrigidor and Bataan, official information came in June, 1942, that Pvt. Heart was missing in action followed by those of his being in a Japanese prison camp and finally, last week of his death.

He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Fecker; a sister, Mrs. Homer (Kathleen) Hutchins, and Miss Leone Hart, Chicago; a brother, Lee Heart, employed in defense work, in Kansas City, Mo., and a sister, Marie Fecker, at home.