I received a letter from Rene Denother of Alton this week and she brought up an interesting point about our series we are planning on World War II veterans.

“My dad was a World War II veteran, but he passed away in March 2002,” she wrote. “Before he died I wrote down his story, which I’m sending to KETC. My dad, Harold Austin, was a participant in the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. He served from North Africa to the Battle of the Bulge. I know you are interested in living stories, but, what about those who left their memories behind?”

My answer to Rene and other people like her are we definitely want the memories of the deceased veterans. We would like to have a black and white photo from their time in the service and a 350-word description of the person’s war story or effort.

The veterans who served in World War II who are deceased definitely deserve an opportunity to have their story told. We will also permanently archive them on our Web site, so the answer to Rene Denother and others are we will definitely publish the stories of those veterans, too.

Rose Luecht of Godfrey also wrote me and said, “Do you ever think about or wonder what has happened to the widows of the servicemen that was killed in World War II?”

I encourage any surviving widow of a serviceman who wants to write in and tell their story to send their letter in, also, and submit the information surrounding their lost loved one in the war.

Those can be e-mailed to dan_brannan@thetelegraph.com or bring the typed copy with photo to The Telegraph office at 111 E. Broadway, Alton, IL., so we can scan it. We will publish the World War II veteran remembrances on Veterans Day in the lifestyle section, then we will continue to take the items to be published in the newspaper thereafter and online at a permanent site on our Web page.

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