Staff Sergeant Jake Junior Fields
 

Pvt. Jake Fields
397th Engineers Co.
Camp Clairborne, Louisiana
postmarked 9 December, 1941

Letter Addressed to:

Mrs. Alice Fields
Palacios, Texas

Letter written on Thirty-Fourth Division, Camp Claiborne, LA. Stationery

12/8/41

Dear Mom,

Well, the President declared war today. Outfits all around us are leaving for the West Coast. Our furloughs have been called off, temporarily, but we may still get them. I will know at the end of this week but they look doubtful. I am planning on coming home next Sat. If nothing else happens. That is in case we really don't get furloughs. I will send you a telegram as to what I am going to do.

Today was my first day of K.P. I have two more, I am really tired, but have a lot more to do tonite. Don't worry about all that has happened. I don't think it will affect me, neither does our captain. And if it does I am in a non-combat unit and won't be doing any fighting. I know you are worried but there is no need to be. I am with a good outfit.

Well, Mom I have a lot to do so I'll close. I'll write again tomorrow nite.

I love you very much. Love, Jake

Courtesy of Charles Henry Fields
 

Unloading supplies on a Leyte beach
 

Palacios has three war casualties reported this week, one Jake Fields, missing in the Pacific War Theatre.....

The third casualty message came from the War Department Monday afternoon to Mrs. Jake Fields, that her husband was reported missing in action since October 25, in the Leyte invasion of the Philippines.

S/Sgt. Jake J. Fields is the son of Mrs. Alice Fields, of Palacios, and grandson of Mrs. J. C. Wilkerson. He was born and raised here and had been in the service about three years.

Palacios Beacon, November, 1944
 

BODY OF JAKE JR. FIELDS IS SHIPPED FOR BURIAL HERE

Mrs. Alice Fields has been notified that the remains of her son, S/Sgt. Jake J. Fields are being returned to the states from the South Pacific area, where he was killed October 25, 1944, on the island Leyte.

The Palacios Funeral Home will receive the body when it arrives and re-burial services will be conducted by the local VFW Post.

The Palacios Beacon, March 31, 1949

Courtesy of Shirley Brown
 

Reburial services for Staff Sergeant Jake J. Fields will be held Thursday, April 21, 1949 at 3:30 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church with Rev. Rayford B. Harris officiating.
 
Lt. Wm. Lloyd Queen Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars will conduct services at the grave in the Palacios cemetery.  Palacios Funeral Home will have charge of arrangements and business houses are to be closed from 3 o'clock until after the services.
 
Staff Sergeant Fields was born in Palacios January 27, 1919, and spent most of his life here.  He attended the local schools but graduated from the Blessing High School with the class of 1939.  He answered the call of his country in World War II on June 16, 1941, and went with the Army, leaving in a few months for overseas duty.  After serving one year there he was returned to the United States where he spent 18 months and again was sent overseas.  He was on duty in the South Pacific and five days after landing on the island of Leyte he was killed in action on October 25, 1944.
 
Survivors include his mother, Mrs. Alice Fields, son Charles Henry Fields, grandmother, Mrs. Lena Wilkerson, besides aunts and uncles and other relatives.

Transcribed by MaryFrances Flournoy from the Palacios Beacon, Palacios, Texas (a newspaper published in Matagorda County, Texas), Front Page, dated Thursday, the 21st of April of 1949. Posted by permission of the editor of the Palacios Beacon.
 

FUNERAL SERVICES FOR SGT. JAKE J. FIELDS AT PALACIOS THURSDAY

Funeral services for Sgt. Jake Junior Fields, age 25, who died October 25, 1944, in Leyte, P. I., will be held Thursday at 3:30 p.m. from the First Presbyterian Church in Palacios. The Rev. Earl Price will officiate with interment in the Palacios cemetery under the directions of Taylor Bros. Funeral Home and the VFW in charge of the service.

Sgt. Fields is survived by his mother, Mrs. Alice Fields, and a son, Charles Henry Fields, of Palacios.

The body will arrive by Missouri Pacific train Thursday noon and will be taken overland to Palacios.

Matagorda County Tribune, April 21,1949
 

Re-Burial Services For S-Sgt. Jake J. Fields Held Here Thursday.

Last rites were held Thursday afternoon for S/Sgt. Jake J. Fields at the First Presbyterian Church, conducted by Rev. Rayford B. Harris, with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in charge of the re-burial service in the cemetery.

Business houses were closed and schools were dismissed to do honor for another of our boys who had given his life for his country.

Relatives and friends here last Thursday for the reburial services of S/Sgt. Jake J. Fields, were Mrs. Caroline Holsheuser of Victoria; Mrs. R. C. Wilkerson of Needville; Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Wilkerson, Jr. of Wharton; Mrs. Ella Frnka of El Campo; Pat Smith of El Campo; Mr. and Mrs. D. D. Dorsey of Freeport; Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Fields and Tommy of Bay City; A. N. and Gene Sandusky of Houston.

The Palacios Beacon, April 28, 1949

Courtesy of Shirley Brown
 

Sergeant first class Bill Paul of the Q.M. Department at Fort Worth, who accompanied the remains of S/Sgt. Jake J. Fields, complimented the local VFW Post for the excellent manner in which they conducted the service, stating that he had traveled from coast to coast, and north to the south for some 150 such services but had seen none to equal the one he had just witnessed.
 
Sgt. Paul also paid high tribute to the ladies who sang, saying he had never heard it more beautifully rendered than it was that day by Misses Letha Yearwood, Jack Huddleston, Bobby Jean and Ginger Richards, Mrs. Gladys Brooking, Mrs. Gladys Claybourn and Mrs. Elnora Oglesby.

Transcribed by MaryFrances Flournoy from the Palacios Beacon, Palacios, Texas (a newspaper published in Matagorda County, Texas), Front Page, dated Thursday, the 28th of April of 1949.  Posted by permission of the editor of the Palacios Beacon.
 

FIELDS – WILKERSON

Sunday afternoon at four o’clock, at the M. E. parsonage, occurred the marriage of Miss Alice Wilkerson and Mr. George De Witt Fields. The young people were accompanied by the Misses Lizzie Wilkerson and Helen Wagner. Immediately after the ceremony the immediate relatives of the contacting parties gathered at the home of J. C. Wilkerson where the wedding supper, such as only Mrs. Wilkerson could prepare, was served. The bride is the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Wilkerson and has grown to young womanhood in Palacios where she has a host of friends who wish her well. While the groom is a comparative new comer he has made many warm friends. The young people at once went to housekeeping in a home prepared by the groom.

Palacios Beacon, August 17, 1917
 

Family photos and documents courtesy of Charles Henry Fields, son of SSgt Fields.

Copyright 2006 - Present by the Fields Family
All rights reserved

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