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Birth:          11 Jun 1920 Winnebago Co., Ill.
Death:          26 Mar 1945 aboard USS Halligan near Okinawa
Burial:         Greenwood Cemetery, Rockford, Winnebago Co., Ill.

Notes
!PUBL
obit of Genevieve White Early Thompson
obit of Benjamin Blakeman Early
1930 in Rockford, Winnebago Co., Ill.
1940 in Rockford, Winnebago Co., Ill.
Winnebago Co., Ill., Births on ancestry
Lost on the explosion of the USS Halligan off the coast of Okinawa
________________________
Tuesday May 1, 1945 Rockford Morning Star Page 5
Missing When Ship is Sunk
Destroyer is Lost in Okinawa Battle

Two Rockford men serving in the Pacific theater of war have been reported 
casualties, one missing in action and the other wounded, their families have been 
informed. 

Listed as missing in action is Ensign Edwin B. Early, 24, son of Mrs. B.B. Early 211 
Guards St., fire control officer on the destroyer Halligan, recently reported sunk in 
action. PFC Franklin Johnson, son of Mr. Mrs. A.T. Johnson, 420 North Avon St. was 
wounded on Okinawa, April 17. 

The Halligan was one of 15 vessels lost in the Navy battle off Okinawa. Ensign Early 
had been on the ship since last August and had participated in a number of major 
engagements including the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines. In letters sent home, 
Early said the destroyer has shot down a large number of Japanese planes. He was 
commissioned in 1943 after graduation from midshipman school in New York City. He's 
a graduate of Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio. His father, the late B.B. Early, member 
of the law firm Early and Early, died March 26. Gordon Early, his younger brother, an 
Ensign in the Navy is training in Miami Florida and an older brother, Albert Early is 
employed in New York City as a tax attorney for a large accounting firm. 

Pfc. Johnson, overseas for the last year, wrote to his parents that he has been 
awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds. He was evacuated to the Marianas and later 
to Hawaii. He entered the army in August 1942. A 1928 graduate of Rockford high 
school, he attended the Mizer Art Academy in Chicago and before his induction into 
the army was employed in the advertising department of Butler Brothers Chicago.

Parents
EARLY Benjamin Blakeman (17 Nov 1887 - 24 Mar 1945)
WHITE Genevieve (22 Nov 1887 - 28 Mar 1990)

Siblings
EARLY Albert Dudley (18 Aug 1913 - 11 Mar 2000)
EARLY Edwin Blakeman (11 Jun 1920 - 26 Mar 1945)
EARLY Gordon White ()

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