Purple Heart returned to daughter of WWII veteran – Chicago Tribune
Good morning, Chicago.
Wounded in the shoulder and ordered to retire from combat, Pfc. Delbert Tuttle refused to leave his fellow U.S. Marines as his unit invaded the Japanese-held island of Saipan during World War II.
The son of a central Illinois farmer stayed to run ammunition to front-line troops, then went back again, still under heavy fire. He was wounded a second time while directing tank fire against the enemy.
Tuttle, then 24, showed such extraordinary grit during the bloody battle — one that proved critical to the Allied victory in the Pacific — that it earned him a Silver Star as well as a Purple Heart, which is awarded to those injured or killed in combat.
On a recent fall day, Tuttle’s 71-year-old daughter held her father’s heart-shaped medal for the first time after Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs presented it to her during a poignant Oct. 29 ceremony at the World War II memorial in Decatur, her hometown.
Frerichs’ office had preserved the medal in a Springfield vault since October 2018, when a Pekin bank turned it over to the state from an abandoned safe deposit box. Now it was being returned to Tuttle’s next of kin.
Weeping tears of pride, Carolyn Peckham said her parents didn’t share many details about the war, including the bravery her late father showed 80 years ago on Saipan.
“I guess I’m just so emotional because I never knew any of this and I’m just so proud of him,” she told the Tribune. “I knew about the medals but as far as the stories behind them, the acts of heroism, I had no clue.”
In an effort to find homes for the 11 heart-shaped commemorations that remain unclaimed, the Tribune spent about four months this year researching public records and interviewing people with possible connections to the abandoned safe deposit boxes.
Two of the 11 medals remain a mystery. But the Tribune found evidence identifying the veterans in the other nine cases. At the Tribune’s request, researchers with the National Archives and Records Administration in St. Louis then unearthed discharge papers verifying their decorated military service. The Cook County clerk’s office, which has a veterans affairs unit, also assisted.
Read part one and part two from the Tribune’s Christy Gutowski .
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
Parents of woman found dead in South Loop apartment stairwell move to block her husband from retrieving remains, citing alleged pattern of abuse
The parents of a woman who was found dead in the stairwell of a South Loop luxury high-rise last month have been granted a temporary order preventing their daughter’s husband from retrieving her remains, alleging in court documents a pattern of abusive behavior.
Labor leaders, Illinois officials fear workers’ rights at risk under Trump, but vow to keep fighting
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul says workers’ rights are at the top of his list of concerns about the incoming Trump administration and its policies. He’s not alone.
In an interview Wednesday, Raoul pointed to efforts that a Trump Labor Department might take to classify gig workers, such as delivery drivers for Uber or Doordash, as independent contractors, which would enable companies to avoid paying them overtime and giving them other benefits they would be entitled to if classified as employees.
Can America heal after the election? Local clergy, researchers tackle political anxiety and toxic polarization.
During a Mass held the evening of Election Day, the priest at St. Clement Parish in Lincoln Park asked for God’s blessings for “our world, our church and our nation, and those who need our prayers” during this decisive moment for the country.
“We pray for peace and unity,” said the Rev. Peter Wojcik, shortly before distributing the Eucharist to roughly three dozen faithful dotting the pews.
Chicagoans embracing leaves: ‘What falls in my yard stays in my yard.’
The green gardening practice known as Leave the Leaves isn’t closely tracked, but a recent poll from the National Wildlife Federation found that 15% of Americans leave their leaves in their yards, and some local leaf-leavers say they’re seeing signs of growing interest on social media.
Illinois families adopt and train 59 miniature horses rescued from ‘gut-wrenching’ hoarding situation
Woodstock-based Hooved Animal Humane Society rescued 59 mini horses in August from a farm in southern Illinois. In what the nonprofit called a “truly awful” and “gut-wrenching” hoarding situation, the horses didn’t have access to a clean water source or vet care. Most had never been touched by humans.
About two months later, most of the horses have been welcomed into new families who are patiently teaching them that humans aren’t a threat.
Will the Chicago Bears win another game this season? Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts after Week 10 loss sends team into crisis mode.
The Bears, who fell to 4-5 with their third consecutive loss since the bye week, are in disarray and they’re not seemingly getting worse with the schedule now ratcheting up. They are getting worse.
Here are 10 thoughts about the Bears in crisis mode at Halas Hall.
Is Nikola Vučević raising his stock? Can Zach LaVine draw serious interest? Assessing trade options for the Chicago Bulls.
Two weeks into the season might seem a little premature to begin floating trade ideas, but not for the Chicago Bulls, who are approaching the 2024-25 season as a building block toward a more prosperous future.
Review: The special show ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ starts with a list and the audience takes it from there
Enter the reignited Gillian Theatre at Writers Theatre in Glencoe and you’re met with a blazingly sunny light cue from the designer Jason Lynch, likely a stark contrast with the gloomy fall evening outside. The show “Every Brilliant Thing” can be set wherever a theater wants it to be set, and the director Kimberly Senior basically picked a North Shore backyard. Or so it feels, and this beautiful theater piece by Duncan Macmillan happens to be all about how everything feels, writes Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.
Biblioracle: ‘The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.’ opens the book on a band that never wanted to become too big
A comprehensive biography of the band has arrived thanks to writer and journalist Peter Ames Carlin with “The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.” Thanks to Carlin’s thorough walkthrough of the individual personalities and talents who came together to form a group that would become unlikely superstars, those of us who literally grew up with R.E.M. can now have a deeper understanding of where the band came from, and why their music felt so urgent.
Shot dead in his flower shop, bootlegger Dean O’Banion got a classic gangland sendoff
Being a florist, Dean O’Banion was waked amid forests of chrysanthemums and roses and ribbon bows signed in the iconic style of a mobster, his other calling.
There were a couple of broken pillars, a plaster riff on Greek architecture, one from “His Pals” and some from “Max’s Boys.” Another card was signed, “Your Friend Al Brown” — Al Capone’s alias.
O’Banion was given a sendoff that was “a testimonial of the leadership he had attained in the realm where gunplay makes millionaires,” the Tribune wrote. Thousands came to pay their respects, or maybe just to gawk.
