Vernon C. Winters

Their Story

Vernon Cleo Winters was born on November 16, 1920, in Davenport, Iowa, the son of Cleo and Elizabeth Struve Winters. His father died on January 4, 1962, and his mother died on April 3, 1971.¹

Winters married Beulah Swigart on March 23, 1941. They later divorced in 1963.² Winters married Betty Jean Brown on July 22, 1973, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She died on November 19, 2006, in Rock Island, Illinois.³

Winters registered for the draft on February 16, 1942, in Davenport, Iowa. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 21, 1942, and did his basic training at Camp White in Jackson County, Oregon.⁴ While stationed at Camp Howze in Texas in 1944, Winters received his overseas orders and was assigned to the Seventh Army. He served in Europe from July 1944 until December 1945.⁵ Private Winters was honorably discharged on December 21, 1945.⁶ He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service during World War II.⁷

The US Seventh Army was the first U.S. field Army to see combat during World War II under the command of U.S. General George S. Patton Jr. It served in North Africa and Italy in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and France and Germany in the European Theater between 1942 and 1945.⁸

After the war, Winters was employed for thirty-nine years by the United States Postal Service as a custodian. He was a member of St. Anthony’s Church in Davenport and the Davenport VFW.⁹

Winters died on December 10, 2010, in Davenport, Iowa. He was survived by his sons, Francis E. (Rosemary) Winters, and Edward Winters; daughters, Mary Ann (Marvin) Remley, Linda Jo Allen, Margaret Winters, Cheryl Hilman, Barbara J. (Richard) Tuthill, Carol Peterson, and Kathleen (Paul) Gulick; daughter-in-law, Starr Winters; thirty three grandchildren; sixty two great-grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren. Winters was preceded in death by two sons, Gary and David, and two brothers and two sisters.¹⁰