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PRIVATE
FIRST CLASS AARNE OSCAR ERICKSON, born in Pennsylvania on October 18,
1918, was the son of Eric and Signe Erickson. His father had been born
in Sweden, his mother in what became Finland after the Russian
revolution of 1917. The family moved about quite a bit before and after
he was born. An older brother, Fred, had been born in Massachusetts in
1916 and another borthr, Charles, in New Jersey around 1917. The 1920
Census shows the family in Solebury Township, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania. Eric Erickson worked as a farm laborer to support his
family. The Ericksons appear in the 1928 Camden City Directory at 27 Morse
Street in East Camden, a two story frame house located on Morse
between Watson and Berwick Streets. The family was still living in
Camden in the early 1930s. Aarne O. Erickson completed two years of high
school at Woodrow
Wilson High School on Federal Street. By 1941 Aarne O. Erickson and his
mother were living at 1150 Penn
Street, Camden NJ.
Aarne
Erickson on April 26, 1941 married Catherine Christina Baldwin of 435
Chambers Avenue at Epiphany
Evangelist Lutheran Church in Camden. They had an infant son
William Aarne. The Erickson family lived at 13 East Collingswood Avenue,
in Oaklyn NJ. Private Erickson had worked for the Mathis
shipyard in
Camden NJ prior to entering the Army on April 6, 1944. He was sent
overseas as a replacement in September of 1944 and assigned to Company
G, 413th
Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division.
Private
Erickson was killed in action on December 3, 1944 in Germany on the last
day of the battle to take the city of Inden. He was
survived by his wife, child, and
mother, and by two brothers, Charles, of Camden NJ, and
Robert of Los Angeles CA. Upon news of his death, funeral
services for Aarne Erickson were held at the Epiphany
Evangelist Lutheran Church at North 7th and Market Streets in Camden NJ.
Aarne
Erickson was brought home to New Jersey in December of 1947. He was
buried on December 19, 1947 at Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly NJ.
As evidenced by a newspaper article and the Army's Interment Control
Form, the date of his death which is inscribed on his headstone is in
error.
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