The Few Remaining World War II Memorial Plaques

by Stella Kapetan

When a service member from Chicago was killed during World War II, the city held a ceremony where a plaque inscribed with their name and a gold star placed on top of a pole or attached to a lamp post was dedicated at the corner of the street where he or she lived. While there were thousands of these plaques across the city at the end of the war in August 1945, almost all are gone today. They were removed over the years for street repairs and other public works projects; out-of-control drivers hit and struck down others. Families moved away and were unaware that the plaque was gone. We look at two plaques that have survived, the men they honor and the families they left behind.

David Vernon Jacobson, known as Vernon, grew up the middle child with his brothers James Kenneth and Frank Jerome, who also went by their middle names, and their parents Marie and Frank in the two-flat they owned at 3853 W. Addison Ave. on the northwest side.

Vernon was an avid photographer, and his interest in aviation and engineering made the Army Air Force a natural fit, his niece Maria Jacobson recently said. Vernon was killed at age 23 on Oct. 13, 1944 when the P-39 Airacobra airplane he was piloting during training at Naples Army Airfield in Florida crashed on approach to the runway.

Maria is Kenneth’s daughter and said he and Vernon were close. “Vernon got my dad hooked on building model airplanes,” she said. “Dad looked up to him because he was in the Air Force. Dad joined the Army Air Force, too.”

Although Maria was born 12 years after Vernon died, she has always felt his death’s impact on her family, especially on her grandmother, whom she calls “Nana.” Maria recalled at around age 6 attending services with her at St. Viator Catholic Church on Addison Avenue near the family home.

“We would pick up my Nana to go to church,” she said. “I remember sitting in the pew with my Nana, and she would be crying, mainly when there was a hymn. I said ‘nana, don’t cry.’ I asked my father, ‘why is Nana crying?’ My dad whispered to me ‘Because of Uncle Vernon.’” Maria also watched as her grandmother would cry and slowly walk over to the plaque honoring the parishioners in the service and put her hand over Vernon’s name.

Maria said that had Vernon lived, he probably would have had a career with the airlines and moved to Florida, where he had enjoyed family vacations. She said it is ironic that it is where he died.

The city dedicated Vernon’s plaque on the corner of Springfield and Eddy on Oct. 14, 1945, one year and a day after he died. It is unknown why it is not on Addison Avenue, but one block south. Vernon’s brothers, who have passed away, regularly tended to it.

“It meant a lot to my dad because it meant so much to my nana,” Maria said. “My dad and Uncle Jerry used to go down and make sure there was a wreath there. I remember my dad going down there with paint and trying to restore the lettering.” She is looking into having the plaque restored and visits it about six times a year. And like her father and uncle, she makes sure there is always a wreath around it. She said her daughter Geena will continue the tradition.

“It would have been nice to have known the man,” Maria said. “He wasn’t married and didn’t have any children, so somebody has to watch it – keep the memorial and memory of him going.”

Vernon Smiling Alone

Maria Jacobson

Parents Marie and Frank Jacobson with Vernon in the middle

Maria Jacobson

Earl Louis Burck was born in Chicago on June 23, 1917. He was 24 when he was killed on Sept. 7, 1941, in a vehicle accident while participating in the Army’s Louisiana Maneuvers. His plaque is secured to a lamp post in the middle of the block near what was the family home at 3006 N. Lowell Ave. on the northwest side. It probably originally stood at the corner.

Newspaper articles and public and other documents shed light on Earl’s life and death. He registered for the service on Oct. 16, 1940. When he enlisted in the Army on June 14, 1941, he was single with no dependents. He was white, stood 6 feet at 150 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair. He was employed at the Simplex Wire & Cable Co. as what his military registration card categorized as “stocks clerk.” His siblings were Walter and Laverne.

When Earl was killed, the United States had not yet entered the war that began two years earlier in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland and was raging around the world. To prepare for what appeared to be the country’s inevitable entry, the Army held the Louisiana Maneuvers near Camp Polk, where mock battles were fought in wide open fields to train commanders to lead and soldiers to fight. Although no live ammunition was used, battle simulations were dangerous and resulted in many casualties. Earl was killed on a highway when he lost control of the vehicle he was driving, it overturned several times and landed in a ditch. He is buried in Ridgewood Memorial Park in suburban Des Plaines.

Why has Earl’s plaque survived for almost 80 years? The family lived in the brown brick bungalow at least as far back as 1927. And the name Laverne Burck was listed as the home’s owner when she died on Sept. 16, 2013. Perhaps she and the family made sure the memorial to their brother and son never disappeared. The Burck home was sold in 2014.

It is unknown what dreams for the future Earl had that died along with him. But like David Vernon Jacobson, his family made sure his memory did not die too.

Earl Burck's Plaque

Stella Kapetan

Burck home until 2014 at 3006 N. Lowell

Stella Kapetan