This is a tough one.

Remember Galen Veayo? He was a Purple Heart recipient in World War II for injuries suffered in the Battle of the Bulge. Galen and Dad were second cousins.

Galen had a twin sister, Oleavia. They were born in Ontario in 1920 and grew up in Bangor, Maine.

Oleavia graduated from high school in 1939. Although she did not have a senior picture (nor did Galen), this yearbook blurb gives us some insight:

Oleavia Veayo is undecided between flowers and beauty. She states that she would either like to be a florist or a beautician. She spends her spare time collecting stamps, spinning figure 8’s on ice rinks, and reading till all hours of the night.

Ultimately, Oleavia chose beauty; she graduated from the Eastern Academy of Beauty Culture in 1941.

On December 18, 1942, Oleavia stood up for her twin as he took a bride. The other attendant was Richard Witzel, from North Dakota. Apparently, their connection was Bangor’s Dow Field, a military airfield at the time where Galen had worked before enlisting and where Richard was now stationed.

Two years later, Richard and Oleavia were engaged:

Richard and Oleavia married in 1946; their first child arrived the next year. Richard was already in California when their daughter was born. Oleavia and the baby joined him from Maine the next month.

The Witzels added two more children to their family, in 1948 and 1951. They stayed in California, where Richard was a heavy-equipment operator and then a machinist.

By 1973, Richard was a member of the Operating Engineers Union and was working for a building contractor. Richard, along with his boss and another employee, were en route to a road construction site near Death Valley to repair some road machinery. It was a Saturday in August. They were flying in a light single-engine plane piloted by Richard’s boss.

Tragically, just as they were landing on the Shoshone airstrip, a wind gust flipped the plane and it spun into the ground.

There were no survivors.

Richard is buried in Fresno, California. Sadly, the only photo I’ve found to represent him is his grave stone:

Oleavia spent the remainder of her life in California. She returned to Maine at least once, to attend her 50th high school reunion. She died on September 13, 2012, the last of her siblings to pass away.

May they all rest in peace.

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