In his new memoir, local author Larry Schnell writes about the discovery of these letters, which documents his parents’ love story — and also explores the little-known role of music in war.
Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced he has returned a Purple Heart medal belonging to a late World War II Marine from Decatur.
A few years ago, traci kato-kiriyama found herself in an exchange with an online seller, trying to recover a trunk that belonged to their family. The trunk was property of kato-kiriyama’s grandfather, a Japanese incarceree of World War II American concentration camps. After a year-and-a-half of back-and-forth, she and the seller came to an agreement
Born in 1919 in Decatur, Ellsworth Dansby, Jr., was fascinated by planes. He first flew alone at age 12 – without ever previously riding in a plane. He used knowledge from books he had read to land his solo flight safely.