I was at Irving Park Boulevard Cemetery in Chicago today filling a Find a Grave photo request. While hunting for the gravestone I was supposed to photograph I came across the grave of PFC Robert Uttley who died on July 4, 1942. I was sure that he had died in combat, but the Chicago Tribune archives had another story:
SOLDIER DROWNS DURING PICNIC
Pvt. First Class Robert Uttley, 20, who arrived in Chicago Thursday on leave from Fort Ord, Cal., drowned in Beverly Lake, four miles east of Dundee on Higgins Road where he was attending a picnic. Uttley was a son of Mrs. Addie Khalar, 2915 Warren Boulevard. His body was recovered.
Chicago Daily Tribune - July 5, 1942
Losing her son so close to home must have been even harder for his mother to take than if he had died in battle. PFC Robert Uttley's grave is in the Highland Section of the Irving Park Boulevard Cemetery, Chicago. May his soul rest in peace.
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