Surnames: Durbin, Molee, Dick, Pognanski

----Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 03/29/1951

. Durbin, Ray (Lanson) #2 (2 AUG 1923 - 18 MAR 1951)

Funeral services were held Wednesday, March 21, 1951, for Lanson Ray Durbin, 27, Withee (Clark Co., Wis.), who lost his life in a tragic accident on March 18th, 1951. The Rev. Shaw officiated at the services which were conducted from Griebenow’s Funeral Parlors and burial was made in Riverside Cemetery.

Pallbearers were Ray Auberg, Norbert Bruchert, Lester Hansen, Bud Rossow, Charles Gummerson and Ernest Cizek.

Ray, as he was better know to his many friends, was born on Aug. 2, 1923 at What Cheer, Iowa. He came to this community as a youth, receiving his schooling in the Curtiss Grad school and graduating from the Owen High School in 1941. On Dec. 6, 1947, he was untied in marriage to Gloria Molee at Greenwood, Wis. His widow and four children, three boys, Bruce and twins Dennis and Darryl, and one daughter, Darla, survive him, as do two sisters, Mrs. Orpha Dick of Harvey, Ill.; Mrs. Edna Pognanski, Withee; four brothers, Elmer, Homer, Howard and Glen, and his mother.

Previous to being married he pursued the occupation of lineman. During the war he served as a paratrooper in the South Pacific and was awarded the Presidential citation for service rendered beyond the call of duty.

He met his tragic death when he became entangled in the cable of a barn cleaner on the Darwin Greenwald farm at Mukwonago, Wis., where he was employed.