1SGT Carl H. Eklund
1895 – 1972
USAR
WWI
Carl Harry Eklund was born October 3, 1895 in Rockford, to Claus and Jenny Danielson Eklund.
Sergeant Eklund sailed to France in May, 1918, with Company K, 129th Infantry, U.S. National Guard, and returned to the U.S. with the same company in March, 1919 as a First Sergeant. Eklund was honorably discharged April 11, 1919 from Company F, 159th Infantry, a “casual” company established for soldiers between assignments at Camp Grant, near Rockford.
After his discharge, he was employed in banking in Rockford until 1935.
In 1923, Eklund married Zerita Rasmussen in Rockford; they had two sons.
He joined the Jewel Tea Company as an auditor in 1935, and moved to Barrington. Seven years later, he was promoted to Manager of the Tax Division there, a position he retained until his retirement in 1961.
Eklund remarried, on March 1, 1941, Loretta Overheu Whitmer in Muscatine, Iowa.
He was a Past Commander of Rockford’s Graig Post, American Legion, and a member of Barrington’s American Legion Post 158.
First Sergeant Carl Eklund died December 1, 1972 in Elgin, and is buried in Barrington’s Evergreen Cemetery.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.