Welcome to the 80th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941 --- the date President Roosevelt assured us on Monday, Dec. 8, would "live in infamy." And so it has, although memories are fading as the last of our World War II veterans walk on.
This is the cover of a four-page "Extra" edition of The Leader --- complete with what we used to call "second coming" type --- published in Chariton that long-ago Monday.
Hurriedly put together, the second page consisted of the weekly Chariton High School news section, already in type with publication originally scheduled for Tuesday, the Leader's regular publication day. Page three was a mixed bag and page four, a full-page advertisement informing readers that the Chariton Newspapers had subscribed to a wire news service that would allow it to publish for the duration the latest on the war in the Tuesday Leader and Thursday Herald-Patriot.
The only war-related local story on Page 1 was at the bottom, headlined "Several Men from Lucas County Now At Island Posts." The story that followed contained no names, but included the text of a letter that had been published on Nov. 11 from U.S. Army Pvt. Bill Hutchings, then 19 and stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. There wasn't much to the letter --- it was mostly a "thank you" for his subscription --- but it did represent a local link.
Bill was a son of Albert Hutchings, who had died six years earlier, and his wife, Jessie, who had moved her family to Chariton after his death.
As it turned out, Bill witnessed some of the collateral damage from Pearl Harbor from his station at Schofield Barracks but was not injured. He went on to serve 39 months during the war --- in Hawaii, Australia, New Guinea and elsewhere.
And he made it home, settling eventually in Denver, Colorado, where he died at age 58 during 1980. He is buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery there.
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