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/?«W Youth 



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Ellsworth D. Lyon 



Christian County had a full and profitable 



meeting in June with a movie on soil and 

 wild life conservation, a quiz program about 

 farm and home safety, Julia Muirheads 

 report of the Leisurecraft and Counseling 

 Camp at East Bay, and recreation under the 

 direction of Donald Downs. 



Schuyler Youth enjoyed a bam dance 



and slumber party at the home of Oleta 

 Clayton, a member, for its June meeting. 

 A number of new dances were learned. 



Clay County Rural Youth sponsored a 



parents' night in June and presented the 

 timely playlet, "A Two-Family Farm Busi- 

 ness." Former Rural Youthers now in the 

 service who attended the meeting were 

 James Fleener, Harold Roley, and Carroll 

 Stanford. 



McDonough Rural Youth served a potluck 



supper for the June meeting. Rural Youth 

 slides for 1944 were shown, after which 

 President Hitchfield proved himself to be a 

 good square-dance caller for the recreation 

 period. 



St. Clair recently beard a speech on "The 

 G. I. Bill of Rights" by R. L. Thorne, 

 former teacher at the Belleville Township 

 High School, but now with the Veteran's 

 Rehabilitation Bureau. 



McHenry County Rural Youth has diree 



members serving as Volunteer Nurse's 

 Aids, is planning to invite a Red Cross 

 speaker soon, and is making plans for a 

 Red Cross benefit dance. 



Jackson-Perry Rural Youth held an out- 

 door meeting at Riverside Park, June 14. 

 Two former members, Clarence Mann, who 

 is home on furlough from overseas with 

 the Army, and Rose Lee Johnson, who has 

 been doing war work in California for 

 several months, were present. 



Randolph's 11th annual bancpiet was built 



around the theme "Looking Ahead," with 

 emphasis upon '"Work," "Home," "Com- 

 munity," "Life." 



Franklin County Rural Youthers recently 



gave a program to cheer the soldiers of the 

 Marion Veterans' hospital. 



Clark County's third annual banquet was 

 a well-planned event. The good menu, Ray 

 Farris' humorous poems, Virginia Fishback's 

 enthusiastic song leadership, and Mr. Ken- 

 neth Cohee's address on "Rural Youth and 

 Post War America" provided very substan- 

 tial physical and mental food. 



Edgar's fifth annual banquet was held on 



the previous night to Clark's, but equal in 

 plans and personalities among youth. Leave 

 it to Edgar to find a way out when at a 

 very late hour it becomes necessary to make 

 changes in the program. Visitors from these 

 two adjoining counties were in evidence at 

 each other's banquet. 



Why shouldn't Rural Youthers tell of 



their interesting employment, as did Loraine 

 Gray of Livingston county when she talked 



upon the theme, "My Experiences in the 

 Hatchery." Volley ball and dancing con- 

 cluded the evening's activities. 



Bureau sets up a standard by which Rural 



Youthers may become eligible to wear the 

 official Rural Youth emblem. A member 

 must first attend meetings regularly and 

 serve in an office or on a committee. This 

 county is continuing to buy war bonds 

 during 1945. The amount, $826.25, was 

 reported as the total at the June meeting. 



Jackson, Mississippi. Private Swtrtz re- 

 ceived three major battle stars. He was 

 awarded the Philippine liberation ribbon, 

 the good conduct ribbon, and the South 

 Pacific ribbon for service in New Guinea, 

 Caledonia, and New Zealand. 



Loren Brunson, former Rural Youlb 



member of Eureka, Woodford county, ac- 

 companied the body of the late president 

 F. D. Roosevelt from Fort Myers, Va. to 

 the White House. 



McLean County has been contributing 



baked goods for the Red Cross Canteen. 



Adams Rural Youthers have been working 



with the county on the clothes collecting 

 campaign for Europe's needy peoples. 



The eighth Oak Leaf cluster wms recently' 



awarded to First Lt. W. A. Grusy, former 

 Rural Youth member from Woodford 

 county. Lt. Grusy is a veteran of 56 

 missions over enemy territory and is the 

 pilot of a P-51 mustang fighter. 



Among the Rural Youth groups repre- 

 sented recently at the blood banks were 

 Bureau, Adams, McHenry, and Knox. 



"What Rural Youth Is and Does" was 



discussed by a member, Kenneth Cheatham 

 at Bond's June meeting. 



Walter Burton, a former Woodford 

 County Rural Youth and a veteran of the 

 North African and European theatres of 

 war attended the San Francisco peace con- 

 ference and drove the car which conveyed 

 Secretary of State Stettinius to and from 

 the meetings. 



Charter members of the newly organized 

 Hamilton County Rural Youth caBi front 

 row, left to right: Edith lames. Fay Erk- 

 mann. Myrtle Sink and Eatherine Gibbs. 



Second row: Elsie Gholson, Gene Endicott 

 and June Irrin. Third row: George Smith, 

 Frank Allen, Charles Robertson and Ray 

 Erkmann. 



President Kenneth Wilson of McHenry 

 county reports "We collected ten decks of 

 playing cards to take on the next camp and 

 hospital council meeting. We contributed 

 $10 toward furnishing a day room for the 

 WACS at Scott Field. We enjoyed a very 

 good talk on "Plant Foods." 



Pfc. John T. Sdunitt, a former Marshall- 

 Putnam Rural Youther serving in the Ma- 

 rines, was killed March 16 on Iwo Jima, it 

 was reported to the Rural Youth organiza- 

 tion. 



Capt. Paul P. Sharpe, Marshall County, 



chaplain in the United States Army, died 

 June 7 in the Philippine Islands. He was 

 stricken with pneumonia and later contracted 

 a fever which caused his death. Before 

 entering the armed forces. Captain Sharpe 

 was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church 

 of La Prairie. He was an active Rural Youth 

 member. 



Private Frank Donald Swartz, a former 



Lee County Rural Youth member is now 

 at home on furlough. Following his fur- 

 lough, he will return to the Percy Jones 

 Hospital, Fort Custer, near Battle Creek, 

 Michigan. Formerly, he was in the Gardner 

 General Hospital, Chicago, and prior to 

 that was in the Foster General Hospital. 



Lieut. Wayne Young, 23, son of Mr. and 



Mrs. W. C. Young, Princeton, Bureau 

 county, was killed in action May 12 while 

 piloting a B-24 Liberator bomber over 

 Mindoro Island in the Philippines, accord- 

 ing to a war department telegram received 

 by his parents. "The plane's entire crew was 

 lost. 



Lieutenant Young's bombardment squad- 

 ron was a member of the famous "Jolly 

 Rogers" Bombing group, which holds the 

 highest record for enemy aircraft downed 

 in the Pacific area. 



Last March Lieutenant Young received 

 the Air Medal for meritorious achievement 

 in action, while participating in aerial flights 

 in the southwest Pacific theater of war. He 

 is a veteran of more than two and a half 

 years of service, having been inducted in 

 September, 1942. Lieutenant Young trained 

 at several centers in the United States, and 

 received his silver wines and commission 

 following graduation from Douglas Air 

 Field, Douglas, Ariz., on March 12, 1944. 



He received his schooling in rural schools 

 of Bureau County, and was a member of 

 the 1940 graduating class of the Walnut 

 community high school. He was well known 

 in the county, and had been active in 4-H 

 and Rural Youth work. 



JULY-AUGUST. 1945 



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