PFC Francis Woodrow Wheeler was born 15 Jan 1919 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the 3rd of the 4 children of Joseph Howard and Martha Louise (Mansch) Wheeler. His father worked as a meat packer, then a foreman in a packing plant and then found work as a janitor in a public school. Martha was working at a cannery in 1940 and Francis was working as a sales clerk at the United Food Shop at 5512 South Ashland Avenue. The family was renting at 5542 Paulina Street in Chicago and together they earned $3765 in 1939. That was a pretty good income in 1940.
Francis was drafted and after completing his basic military training he married Mildred Anna Martens in July 1942. He was probably sent to England soon after that and assigned to D Company 116th Infantry. He then trained with the unit as it prepared for the amphibious landing that had been planned as a part of the effort to liberate Nazi occupied France. PFC Wheeler took part in that landing on 6 Jun 1944 and was killed in action on that day.
PFC Wheeler was repatriated and re-interred in Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery in Evergreen Park, Illinois.
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