WILLARD B. BALCH, 46, member of Ranger High School
Class of 1938 at Ranger, TX, but left school prior to
graduation, was the son of the late Robert & Lela Mae
Brewster Balch, born on Sept. 15, 1919. He went to
mortuary school in Ft. Worth. Upon completion of this
training, he worked for a funeral home there in Ft.
Worth. He then came back to Ranger to work for
Killingsworth Hardware & Killingsworth Funeral Home
until WWII. He served in the U.S. Navy and was
deployed to Europe with the Graves Registration
where they resumed the bodies of our soldiers to be
sent back to the U.S. When this tour of duty was
complete, he then was assigned to the occupation forces
where he was place in charge of an officer's club. He
returned to the U.S. with his wife to be (Gerda Burger)
& they lived in Odessa, TX, where they were both employed.
They had one son and then twins sons in a period of 18
months (Burton, Blane & Byron Blach, later they divorced.
Willard died on Oct. 2, 1965, in Taylor County.
He was survived by a brother, Robert "Bob" Balch, Jr.
(RHS-1947) and wife, Ann of Tucumcari, NM, & a sister,
Mildred Balch (RHS-1942).