Gail Edward Higgins
S/SGT in Signal Co, Special : Radio HQ
Military occupational specialty: 766 (radio operator, high speed, manual)
ASN#37267838
Born 1920 in IA, Died 1998
Other residence(s): Council Bluffs, IA; Earlham, IA; Des Moines, IA; Coeur d'Alene, ID
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Gail Higgins was born on October 15, 1920 near Council Bluffs, IA. He had an older sister, Margaret, who was raised by her aunt and uncle. Nothing is known of Gail's father; his mother worked as a telephone operator before Gail's birth. She remarried, in 1931, to a man named Milo Crouse.
Gail grew up in Council Bluffs, IA and attended school there, including Abraham Lincoln High School where he met the woman he would marry after the war, Phyllis Heitman. He registered for the draft on February 16, 1942, and enlisted later that year, on October 28. He was eventually assigned to the Signal Company Special, and saw service in Europe with the unit during the war.
He was discharged on October 21, 1945 with the rank of Staff SGT and returned to Iowa where he married Phyllis on January 13, 1946. In the spring of 1947, they moved to their farm northwest of Earlham.
Gail and Phyllis were the parents of two sons: Philip and Daniel. Sadly, Daniel died in a car-tractor accident in 1963 when he was only 15.
The Higginses worked the farm in Earlham until their retirement in 1979. Gail loved farming, and raised registered Hereford cattle. It was said of Phyllis that "she worked side by side with Gail and was as good as any man at driving a tractor or working cattle."
Gail was a 4-H leader for many years, a member of the Madison County Hereford Association, the Iowa Hereford Association, and the American Hereford Association. He was an Earlham school board member, and belonged to the VFW in Winterset and the American Legion in Earlham. He loved spending time with young people and was an enthusiastic supporter of school sports, band events, and cattle shows.
Gail had been baptized at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Council Bluffs in 1946 and was a member of the Zion Lutheran Church in Dexter for many years.
The couple moved to Coeur d'Alene, ID in 1998; he died there of cancer later that year. He is buried at Dexter Cemetery in Dexter IA.
Sources:
1942 draft card
1945 engagement announcement in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil (IA)
1946 wedding announcement in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil (IA)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/960483502/?match=1&terms=gail%20higgins
1949 Iowa World War II Bonus Case Files
1950 census
1963 Iowa death records (son's record)
1998 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15577517/gail-edward-higgins
1998 VA death record
1998 obituary in the Des Moines Register (IA)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/130966287/?match=1&terms=gail%20edward%20higgins
1998 obituary in the Daily Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, IA)
2019 wife's obituary