----Source: Greenwood Library Scrapbook Collection

MARSHFIELD NEWS HERALD 10/4/1948

FUNERAL, MILITARY RITES ARE PLANNED
GREENWOOD SERVICEMAN KILLED IN ACTION IN ITALY Dec. 4, 1943

Greenwood Funeral rites will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at Grace Methodist Church for Pvt. John Thomas Leach, 22, who was killed in action Dec. 4, 1943 in Italy. The Rev. Lee H. Holmes will officiate at the services and burial will be made in the Greenwood Cemetery, where the Wallis-Hinker Post No. 238 of the American Legion will have charge of the military rites.

Members of the Legion Auxiliary will be in charge of the flowers and pallbearers will be Legion members. The remains are scheduled to arrive Thursday and will be taken to the Stabnow Funeral Home. At noon Friday the casket will be taken to the Church.

The Greenwood serviceman entered the Army Air Forces June 8, 1942, at Milwaukee and was inducted at Fort Sheridan, Ill. From there he was sent to Camp Robinson, Ark., later to Camp Edwards, Mass., and on April 1, 1943, left for North Africa.

He entered Italy from North Africa as a member of the 36th Division with the heavy artillery.

He was born June 23, 1921 in Greenwood, Clark County, attended school in Greenwood, and spent his entire life in the city. Surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Leach, now of Neillsville and fomerly of Greenwood a brother, Almond four sisters, Mrs. Robert (Juanita) Roder, Mrs. Rudolph (Bethel) Volk, Mrs. Erick (Coralie) Hoffman and Mrs. Fred J. (Lucy) Gosse and his grandfather and uncle, Thomas and Irvin Leach, both of Greenwood.