Surnames: Smiley, Bulgrin

----Source: Abbotsford Tribune (Abbotsford, Clark County, Wis.) 06/01/1944

Smiley, Lester (5 Feb. 1912 - 14 May 1944)

Mr. and Mrs. Leon Smiley, of Curtiss, received a message from the War Department stating that their son, T/4 Sgt. Lester Smiley, 32, was killed in action in Italy, May 14.

Sgt. Smiley enlisted March 16, 1942 in the Signal Corps. He received training at Camp Crowder, Mo., and Fort Bragg, N.C., from where he was sent overseas and landed on Christmas day, 1942, in North Africa. He served in the African campaign at Bizerte, Tunisia, Casablanca, in the Sicilian campaign and in the battle for Rome where he lost his life. He received a citation for outstanding service.

Lester Smiley was born at Messena, Ia., Feb. 5, 1912 and since he was a small child lived on a farm north of Curtiss. Before entering the army he was employed with the Northern States Power company service crew at Owen and in that capacity has often worked in this vicinity.

He leaves his parents, one sister, Mrs. DuWayne Bulgrin, of Owen, two brothers, Leland, Curtiss, and Donald Smiley of Duluth, Minn.