Herrick’s remains will be transported to Roberts Blue Barnett funeral home from Omaha, Nebraska, with funeral services scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at Memorial Lawn Cemetery, 2000 Prairie Street. Community members are encouraged to attend the service to honor the fallen World War II hero on what would have been his 100th birthday. (Cheyeanne Campbell/Marine Corps)
(TNS) Nov. 2—U.S. Army Sgt. John O. Herrick, an Emporia soldier killed during D-Day who was recently accounted for after 80 years, will make his final journey home to Emporia on Nov. 8.
Herrick’s remains will be transported to Roberts Blue Barnett funeral home from Omaha, Nebraska, with funeral services scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at Memorial Lawn Cemetery, 2000 Prairie Street. Community members are encouraged to attend the service to honor the fallen World War II hero on what would have been his 100th birthday.
Born on Nov. 11, 1924, in Elmdale, Kansas, Herrick was known as an All-American boy who would mow lawns for neighbors, accepting only pie as payment. He was athletic in high school and enjoyed riding motorcycles with his brothers before enlisting in the Army alongside three of his closest friends.
Serving with the 149th Engineer Combat Battalion, Herrick was aboard the USS LCI(L)-92 during the D-Day invasion. The landing craft, carrying approximately 25 crew members and 200 soldiers, never reached Omaha Beach, and all lives were lost.
The American Battle Monuments Commission placed a bronze rosette beside Herrick’s name on the Wall of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France earlier this year. The rosette, a symbol of honor and victory, marks that Herrick has been accounted for among the fallen.
“He is being honored a lot,” Herrick’s niece Kathleen Lamb told The Gazette in March. “We lost a lot of young men, but to lose him at 19, just starting out in life and dying the way he would have died, it just makes me very proud of the community and of the nation to honor those that we lost.”
Herrick was officially accounted for on Aug. 21, 2023, though the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency did not make the announcement until March 25, 2024.
Survivors include nephews John Owen Herrick, Michael Dan Herrick, and Gail Herrick; nieces Kathy (Harry) Lamb and LuAnn (Mike) Fields; and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews.
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