Cubbage killed serving in WWII

Editor’s note: This is the 41st in a series of stories about past and present Jackson County residents who earned the Purple Heart Medal, which is awarded to military personnel wounded or killed in the line of duty.

The names of those profiled in these stories will be among those placed on a special monument for Purple Heart Medal recipients currently under construction in Holton’s Linscott Park.

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U.S. Army Private First Class Wayne E. Cubbage of Holton died in the waning days of World War II while on duty in the Philippines, but through the efforts of one of his former neighbors in Holton, Cubbage’s name can be remembered by those who visit the Fallen Soldier Memorial on the southeast corner of Holton’s Town Square.

Soon, Cubbage’s name will be included among those who were wounded or killed in action as one of several names to be included on the Purple Heart Memorial.

Wayne was one of two sons of John and Bertha Cubbage who served in the military during World War II. His older brother, Walter Glade Cubbage, also served in the Army and was a German prisoner of war for more than two years before being released at the end of the war.

Born Oct. 29, 1924, in Colorado, Wayne and his brother were sent to Holton to live with their grandparents, William and Wilmina Cubbage, after their mother, Bertha Cubbage, died from childbirth complications. Wayne attended Holton High School for two years and was trained in mechanics and motor vehicle repair before joining the Army.

According to U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records from 1938 to 1946, Wayne enlisted on June 3, 1943, at Fort Leavenworth, “for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law.” The Holton Recorder reported that he had transferred from Camp Roberts to Fort Ord, both in California, before the year was out.

Another Jackson County newspaper, The Jackson County Signal, also printed part of a letter that Wayne wrote his grandmother from “somewhere in the Southwest Pacific” in its Feb. 7, 1944 edition. Wayne wroted that “this is a beautiful island and I like this place a lot. Have picked up beautiful shells along the beach here.”

Cubbage died at the age of 20 on Jan. 22, 1945, in Luzon, in the Philippines, as a member of the 103rd Infantry, 43rd Infantry Division that invaded Luzon on Jan. 9, 1945. He was originally buried in the Philippines, but his body was exhumed and brought back to the U.S. in 1949, and he was buried in Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colo., next to his mother.

A former Holton neighbor, William Scheidegger, recalled Cubbage and suggested that his name be memorialized in a brick at the Fallen Soldier Memorial, and in 2012, Scheidegger’s wish was granted.

“He was a neighbor when I was a kid,” Scheidegger, a Topeka resident at the time, said of Cubbage when the fallen soldier’s brick was engraved and installed. “He and his older brother were more my older brother’s age, and he was a friend of my brother and my sisters.”