Bio (In 2023, by his goddaughter and niece): They were in a family that loved music, radio always playing, in the barn. When did he take an interest in how they worked?
His 1940 US Census in Kossuth County, Iowa, showed him still at the Arndorfer farmhouse southeast of St Benedict church, showed him in a full household. He was the eldest, at 19, high school finished, able to assist competently with the heavy-duty farm work.
Showing plans different than farming, however, that census listed his (part-time?) occupation as "Radio Operator". Did that have anything to do with a young uncle at the nearby Ludwig farm, closer to St Benedict, saying in his 1940 Census, that he piloted airplanes (unstated, they were of the small kind)? A local news article at one point indicated that uncle had taken hunters willing to pay him for hunting excursions. Did the young pilot uncle need a radio operator on board, or otherwise to stay in contact?
His father was Henry Joseph Arndorfer. He was Henry Jr, but not Henry Joseph Jr, a mystery as to why Robert would be his middle name, his younger brother's first name. They loved music and they loved playing ball. A team photo is top left, brother Bob one of the players.
When not called "junior", he'd been called Heine. Heard as "HIGH-knee", that's a Germanic nickname, for a littler Heinrich, called that since tiny.
His younger sister Donna remembered "Junior" listening to a radio in the dining room, while she attempted to practice her piano lesson in the adjacent living room. "I can't hear" he'd said, the sliding doors between them not enough of a sound barrier, so she stopped.
Was he listening to a ham radio? Maybe studying methods and code? Or, hearing the news about Hitler's frightening advances in Europe?
WW II quickly developed into a need for soldiers from the US. His military records showed him at RAF, the Roswell Air Force base (Chaves County, New Mexico). He would serve there, until his official separation notice, in Oct., 1945, permitted him to leave .
The family loved ball games, so he is shown with the St Benedict team. The church at St Benedict is gone. He would have held his goddaughter at her welcoming ceremony there, when he and his older sister Dee made promises as godparents to supervise her future. Both godparents, Junior and his sister Dee, left farming, married "town people", then went to bigger cities. Uncle Junior would be an auto mechanic near Rockford, Ill. Aunt Dee would do executive-assisting work, at Burlington, Iowa, her kids "pitching in" at home to make that possible.
As happened elsewhere across America, the farming towns de-populated, while cities and then suburbs grew. Schools were permanently closed in some places, while reluctant tax-payers paying for brand new schools in growing places complained. At St. Benedict, the beautiful little church and some others nearby closed. Their congregations then merged with St Cecelia. That larger church was to the west, in Algona, past an also shrinking Sexton. Algona was the county seat of Kossuth. With its movie theater, swimming pool, library, restaurants, and more varied stores, location on rail lines and a major state highway intersection, it was able to attract several plants.
Does the church have a new name, to match its broadened congregation?
He took his home life seriously. Once at a distance from his family in northwest Iowa, not enough years remained to visit many times, before he "died too young".
Traveling with small children is not easy. We made one long trip to visit to him (in Illinois). He made one long-distance visit to see us (in Iowa). Either he was an early environmentalist, or he remembered the need to conserve water back on the farm (If you use too much from the well, then the well might not have enough for the cows?) .
Thus, this then tiny child's tiny brain remembered his instruction to not flush his Illinois toilet too much. That's it? He had that lovely dark hair. That's it? Yes, and he had a nice family.
My mother woke me, very early one morning, to say they were leaving for his funeral. He'd died in the night, a terrible accident, the car flipped over on top of him (no seat belts yet?), after he fallen asleep at the wheel and was tossed out at impact. He'd been working over time, too tired from not enough sleep, my mom thought, working too many hours, she'd said. The event was in the category farmers of our area and thinking people anywhere called "needless deaths". We discussed "needless deaths", did not "sweep them under the rug". Adults talked about what went wrong, teaching lessons to children about "how to not let that happen to you".
If he'd had today's seatbelts, he'd have lived? Hard to survive, if tossed out of a car and the car lands on top of you? Or, if you hit your head on a rock?
With "not enough time to know him better", my mother's only personal photo of him, the only one after her wedding, was him "at rest in his coffin". It showed that dark wavy hair that so many Arndorfers seemed to have.
SIDE NOTE: We used to have his later family details here, but someone does not want that. We are happy to comply. If a direct descendant, you may put added facts below, with a remark that 's who is writing. Thank you!
JB, last revised Nov. 2023
His 1940 US Census in Kossuth County, Iowa, showed him still at the Arndorfer farmhouse southeast of St Benedict church, showed him in a full household. He was the eldest, at 19, high school finished, able to assist competently with the heavy-duty farm work.
Showing plans different than farming, however, that census listed his (part-time?) occupation as "Radio Operator". Did that have anything to do with a young uncle at the nearby Ludwig farm, closer to St Benedict, saying in his 1940 Census, that he piloted airplanes (unstated, they were of the small kind)? A local news article at one point indicated that uncle had taken hunters willing to pay him for hunting excursions. Did the young pilot uncle need a radio operator on board, or otherwise to stay in contact?
His father was Henry Joseph Arndorfer. He was Henry Jr, but not Henry Joseph Jr, a mystery as to why Robert would be his middle name, his younger brother's first name. They loved music and they loved playing ball. A team photo is top left, brother Bob one of the players.
When not called "junior", he'd been called Heine. Heard as "HIGH-knee", that's a Germanic nickname, for a littler Heinrich, called that since tiny.
His younger sister Donna remembered "Junior" listening to a radio in the dining room, while she attempted to practice her piano lesson in the adjacent living room. "I can't hear" he'd said, the sliding doors between them not enough of a sound barrier, so she stopped.
Was he listening to a ham radio? Maybe studying methods and code? Or, hearing the news about Hitler's frightening advances in Europe?
WW II quickly developed into a need for soldiers from the US. His military records showed him at RAF, the Roswell Air Force base (Chaves County, New Mexico). He would serve there, until his official separation notice, in Oct., 1945, permitted him to leave .
The family loved ball games, so he is shown with the St Benedict team. The church at St Benedict is gone. He would have held his goddaughter at her welcoming ceremony there, when he and his older sister Dee made promises as godparents to supervise her future. Both godparents, Junior and his sister Dee, left farming, married "town people", then went to bigger cities. Uncle Junior would be an auto mechanic near Rockford, Ill. Aunt Dee would do executive-assisting work, at Burlington, Iowa, her kids "pitching in" at home to make that possible.
As happened elsewhere across America, the farming towns de-populated, while cities and then suburbs grew. Schools were permanently closed in some places, while reluctant tax-payers paying for brand new schools in growing places complained. At St. Benedict, the beautiful little church and some others nearby closed. Their congregations then merged with St Cecelia. That larger church was to the west, in Algona, past an also shrinking Sexton. Algona was the county seat of Kossuth. With its movie theater, swimming pool, library, restaurants, and more varied stores, location on rail lines and a major state highway intersection, it was able to attract several plants.
Does the church have a new name, to match its broadened congregation?
He took his home life seriously. Once at a distance from his family in northwest Iowa, not enough years remained to visit many times, before he "died too young".
Traveling with small children is not easy. We made one long trip to visit to him (in Illinois). He made one long-distance visit to see us (in Iowa). Either he was an early environmentalist, or he remembered the need to conserve water back on the farm (If you use too much from the well, then the well might not have enough for the cows?) .
Thus, this then tiny child's tiny brain remembered his instruction to not flush his Illinois toilet too much. That's it? He had that lovely dark hair. That's it? Yes, and he had a nice family.
My mother woke me, very early one morning, to say they were leaving for his funeral. He'd died in the night, a terrible accident, the car flipped over on top of him (no seat belts yet?), after he fallen asleep at the wheel and was tossed out at impact. He'd been working over time, too tired from not enough sleep, my mom thought, working too many hours, she'd said. The event was in the category farmers of our area and thinking people anywhere called "needless deaths". We discussed "needless deaths", did not "sweep them under the rug". Adults talked about what went wrong, teaching lessons to children about "how to not let that happen to you".
If he'd had today's seatbelts, he'd have lived? Hard to survive, if tossed out of a car and the car lands on top of you? Or, if you hit your head on a rock?
With "not enough time to know him better", my mother's only personal photo of him, the only one after her wedding, was him "at rest in his coffin". It showed that dark wavy hair that so many Arndorfers seemed to have.
SIDE NOTE: We used to have his later family details here, but someone does not want that. We are happy to comply. If a direct descendant, you may put added facts below, with a remark that 's who is writing. Thank you!
JB, last revised Nov. 2023
Bio (In 2023, by his goddaughter and niece): They were in a family that loved music, radio always playing, in the barn. When did he take an interest in how they worked?
His 1940 US Census in Kossuth County, Iowa, showed him still at the Arndorfer farmhouse southeast of St Benedict church, showed him in a full household. He was the eldest, at 19, high school finished, able to assist competently with the heavy-duty farm work.
Showing plans different than farming, however, that census listed his (part-time?) occupation as "Radio Operator". Did that have anything to do with a young uncle at the nearby Ludwig farm, closer to St Benedict, saying in his 1940 Census, that he piloted airplanes (unstated, they were of the small kind)? A local news article at one point indicated that uncle had taken hunters willing to pay him for hunting excursions. Did the young pilot uncle need a radio operator on board, or otherwise to stay in contact?
His father was Henry Joseph Arndorfer. He was Henry Jr, but not Henry Joseph Jr, a mystery as to why Robert would be his middle name, his younger brother's first name. They loved music and they loved playing ball. A team photo is top left, brother Bob one of the players.
When not called "junior", he'd been called Heine. Heard as "HIGH-knee", that's a Germanic nickname, for a littler Heinrich, called that since tiny.
His younger sister Donna remembered "Junior" listening to a radio in the dining room, while she attempted to practice her piano lesson in the adjacent living room. "I can't hear" he'd said, the sliding doors between them not enough of a sound barrier, so she stopped.
Was he listening to a ham radio? Maybe studying methods and code? Or, hearing the news about Hitler's frightening advances in Europe?
WW II quickly developed into a need for soldiers from the US. His military records showed him at RAF, the Roswell Air Force base (Chaves County, New Mexico). He would serve there, until his official separation notice, in Oct., 1945, permitted him to leave .
The family loved ball games, so he is shown with the St Benedict team. The church at St Benedict is gone. He would have held his goddaughter at her welcoming ceremony there, when he and his older sister Dee made promises as godparents to supervise her future. Both godparents, Junior and his sister Dee, left farming, married "town people", then went to bigger cities. Uncle Junior would be an auto mechanic near Rockford, Ill. Aunt Dee would do executive-assisting work, at Burlington, Iowa, her kids "pitching in" at home to make that possible.
As happened elsewhere across America, the farming towns de-populated, while cities and then suburbs grew. Schools were permanently closed in some places, while reluctant tax-payers paying for brand new schools in growing places complained. At St. Benedict, the beautiful little church and some others nearby closed. Their congregations then merged with St Cecelia. That larger church was to the west, in Algona, past an also shrinking Sexton. Algona was the county seat of Kossuth. With its movie theater, swimming pool, library, restaurants, and more varied stores, location on rail lines and a major state highway intersection, it was able to attract several plants.
Does the church have a new name, to match its broadened congregation?
He took his home life seriously. Once at a distance from his family in northwest Iowa, not enough years remained to visit many times, before he "died too young".
Traveling with small children is not easy. We made one long trip to visit to him (in Illinois). He made one long-distance visit to see us (in Iowa). Either he was an early environmentalist, or he remembered the need to conserve water back on the farm (If you use too much from the well, then the well might not have enough for the cows?) .
Thus, this then tiny child's tiny brain remembered his instruction to not flush his Illinois toilet too much. That's it? He had that lovely dark hair. That's it? Yes, and he had a nice family.
My mother woke me, very early one morning, to say they were leaving for his funeral. He'd died in the night, a terrible accident, the car flipped over on top of him (no seat belts yet?), after he fallen asleep at the wheel and was tossed out at impact. He'd been working over time, too tired from not enough sleep, my mom thought, working too many hours, she'd said. The event was in the category farmers of our area and thinking people anywhere called "needless deaths". We discussed "needless deaths", did not "sweep them under the rug". Adults talked about what went wrong, teaching lessons to children about "how to not let that happen to you".
If he'd had today's seatbelts, he'd have lived? Hard to survive, if tossed out of a car and the car lands on top of you? Or, if you hit your head on a rock?
With "not enough time to know him better", my mother's only personal photo of him, the only one after her wedding, was him "at rest in his coffin". It showed that dark wavy hair that so many Arndorfers seemed to have.
SIDE NOTE: We used to have his later family details here, but someone does not want that. We are happy to comply. If a direct descendant, you may put added facts below, with a remark that 's who is writing. Thank you!
JB, last revised Nov. 2023
His 1940 US Census in Kossuth County, Iowa, showed him still at the Arndorfer farmhouse southeast of St Benedict church, showed him in a full household. He was the eldest, at 19, high school finished, able to assist competently with the heavy-duty farm work.
Showing plans different than farming, however, that census listed his (part-time?) occupation as "Radio Operator". Did that have anything to do with a young uncle at the nearby Ludwig farm, closer to St Benedict, saying in his 1940 Census, that he piloted airplanes (unstated, they were of the small kind)? A local news article at one point indicated that uncle had taken hunters willing to pay him for hunting excursions. Did the young pilot uncle need a radio operator on board, or otherwise to stay in contact?
His father was Henry Joseph Arndorfer. He was Henry Jr, but not Henry Joseph Jr, a mystery as to why Robert would be his middle name, his younger brother's first name. They loved music and they loved playing ball. A team photo is top left, brother Bob one of the players.
When not called "junior", he'd been called Heine. Heard as "HIGH-knee", that's a Germanic nickname, for a littler Heinrich, called that since tiny.
His younger sister Donna remembered "Junior" listening to a radio in the dining room, while she attempted to practice her piano lesson in the adjacent living room. "I can't hear" he'd said, the sliding doors between them not enough of a sound barrier, so she stopped.
Was he listening to a ham radio? Maybe studying methods and code? Or, hearing the news about Hitler's frightening advances in Europe?
WW II quickly developed into a need for soldiers from the US. His military records showed him at RAF, the Roswell Air Force base (Chaves County, New Mexico). He would serve there, until his official separation notice, in Oct., 1945, permitted him to leave .
The family loved ball games, so he is shown with the St Benedict team. The church at St Benedict is gone. He would have held his goddaughter at her welcoming ceremony there, when he and his older sister Dee made promises as godparents to supervise her future. Both godparents, Junior and his sister Dee, left farming, married "town people", then went to bigger cities. Uncle Junior would be an auto mechanic near Rockford, Ill. Aunt Dee would do executive-assisting work, at Burlington, Iowa, her kids "pitching in" at home to make that possible.
As happened elsewhere across America, the farming towns de-populated, while cities and then suburbs grew. Schools were permanently closed in some places, while reluctant tax-payers paying for brand new schools in growing places complained. At St. Benedict, the beautiful little church and some others nearby closed. Their congregations then merged with St Cecelia. That larger church was to the west, in Algona, past an also shrinking Sexton. Algona was the county seat of Kossuth. With its movie theater, swimming pool, library, restaurants, and more varied stores, location on rail lines and a major state highway intersection, it was able to attract several plants.
Does the church have a new name, to match its broadened congregation?
He took his home life seriously. Once at a distance from his family in northwest Iowa, not enough years remained to visit many times, before he "died too young".
Traveling with small children is not easy. We made one long trip to visit to him (in Illinois). He made one long-distance visit to see us (in Iowa). Either he was an early environmentalist, or he remembered the need to conserve water back on the farm (If you use too much from the well, then the well might not have enough for the cows?) .
Thus, this then tiny child's tiny brain remembered his instruction to not flush his Illinois toilet too much. That's it? He had that lovely dark hair. That's it? Yes, and he had a nice family.
My mother woke me, very early one morning, to say they were leaving for his funeral. He'd died in the night, a terrible accident, the car flipped over on top of him (no seat belts yet?), after he fallen asleep at the wheel and was tossed out at impact. He'd been working over time, too tired from not enough sleep, my mom thought, working too many hours, she'd said. The event was in the category farmers of our area and thinking people anywhere called "needless deaths". We discussed "needless deaths", did not "sweep them under the rug". Adults talked about what went wrong, teaching lessons to children about "how to not let that happen to you".
If he'd had today's seatbelts, he'd have lived? Hard to survive, if tossed out of a car and the car lands on top of you? Or, if you hit your head on a rock?
With "not enough time to know him better", my mother's only personal photo of him, the only one after her wedding, was him "at rest in his coffin". It showed that dark wavy hair that so many Arndorfers seemed to have.
SIDE NOTE: We used to have his later family details here, but someone does not want that. We are happy to comply. If a direct descendant, you may put added facts below, with a remark that 's who is writing. Thank you!
JB, last revised Nov. 2023
Inscription
Ill. Pfc. 3030 Base Unit AAf WW11
Gravesite Details
AmLeg.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
