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In June, 1946, the War Department released a list of 308,978 army veterans who lost their lives during the war. Nebraska’s losses totaled 2,976.
Cedar County lost 34. Of that number 20 were killed in action; one died of wounds; 11 died of non-combat injuries; two were pronounced dead after being reported missing in action.
The figures did not include deaths in the Navy or Marines.
In national news from June 1946, it was reported that the entire Arab world had united in a single front to resist implementation of the Anglo-American Committee’s proposal to settle 100,000 displaced Jews in Palestine. Complicating the situation for the U.S. was Saudi Arabia‘s alignment with the Arab front which could threaten America’s interest in that country’s valuable petroleum resources.
Arab Christians also were opposed to settling Jewish refugees in the Holy Land. They believed that the plan would result in the displacement of native Christians as well as Muslims. But the Truman Administration apparently believed that Palestinian Arabs and European Jews, would eventually learn to tolerate each other and live happily ever after. We know how that worked out.
During an afternoon storm on June 18, another military plane crashed northeast of Laurel. The plane, a four-engine Navy patrol bomber came down on the Fred Noe farm 2 miles north of Dixon.
The plane was on a routine training flight out of Hutchinson, Kansas, when the pilot lost his way in the stormy weather. With only 15 minutes of fuel left, the fourman crew bailed out near Pender. The pilotless plane, continued on until it ran out of fuel and then slammed into the ground scattering wreckage over a wide area. A piece of the wreckage passed through the window of the Clark Center school and exited through a side wall. Fortunately, school was out for the summer.
Two Laurel girls received a surprise graduation gift. Inseparable friends since childhood, Dorothy Quist and Donna Fae Dempster, were given a trip to Florida by Dorothy‘s brother Francis who was then living in Orlando. The trip was a reward for all the packages sent to Francis and his brother Buddy while they were serving overseas.
Longtime Laurel veterinarian Dr. Frank J. Embick married Miss Margaret Rose Galligan of Madison, Wisconsin. Embick’s first wife, Josephine, died in 1943.
Margaret was Josephine’s older sister. Dr. Embick was killed in August 1952 when the station wagon he was driving collided with a butane gas truck at a country intersection four miles south and one mile west of Laurel.
His replacement was Dr. Walter Chace. Embick and Chace were Laurel’s veterinarians for a combined total of 98 years.
Mr. and Mrs. Pete Christensen saved money on weddings when both of his daughters got married in the same church at the same time. On Saturday, June 16, Miss Jean Christensen married William Hansen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Magnus Hansen. Marjorie married John Calcavecchia of New Jersey. The double wedding was held in the Laurel Methodist Church.
Also in June 1946, the Laurel Village Board announced the contract for the paving project had been let to the Arnold Swanson company of Hastings.
The project called for laying concrete on Oak and Cedar from Main Street one block south to Third. Elm also would be paved from First Street to Third, and First Street would be paved from Elm east to Oak.
