PFC Edward Perez Tepper

courtesy of Wednesday

PFC Edward Perez Tepper was born 13 Oct 1918 in Denver, Colorado. He was the only child of Zelig and Rose (Minzer) Tepper. His father, a native of what is now Belarus, was working as a laborer but at what we don't know. Mother Rose died just less than 3 months after Edward's birth in December 1918. She was just 19-years old. Zelig married Monya Esther Sukalinsky in 1919 and the couple would soon have 2 more children. Zelig would begin working as a driver for Windsor Farm Dairy. Edward would not live with his father and step-mother, instead he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents, Herman and Mary Minzer who owned a home at 1389 Raleigh Street in Denver. Grandfather Herman owned and operated his own harness shop. His father moved closer to his own parents in Saint Louis, Missouri where he died in 1933. Edward's step-mother remarried the next year. While that family remained in the Denver area, it is unclear if Edward ever had any relationship with his half-siblings. He completed high school at West High School in Denver and was working for the Denver Post Distributor while living with his grandparents when he registered for the draft in 1940.

Edward was drafted in November 1942. After his basic military training he was sent to the European theater. PFC Tepper was transferred from the replacement depot to K Company 116th Infantry on 24 Jul 1944 to serve as a rifleman. He would have fought with the at Vire and was with the unit as it attacked German forces in the city of Brest, France. PFC Tepper was initially reported by the unit as missing in action but was later found to have been killed in action on 27 Aug 1944. 

His grandmother, Mary Minzer, arranged for him to be repatriated in 1949 and PFC Tepper was re-interred near his mother in the Mount Nebo Memorial Park in Aurora, Colorado. 

Edward's is another record that has been altered by clerical error. While the internment card shows a death date of 5 May 1945 on the face (the original entry) and 21 Nov 1944 on the reverse (the "correction") the truth is that he went missing when killed on 27 Aug 1944 but that his body wasn't recovered until November 1944. Such is the fog of war.