#231 Donald Robert Powers ( Mary Catherine "Mayme" SeylerJames SeylerJohn SeylerJohn Christian SeylerJoseph Seyler )

Alternate line: ( Mary Catherine "Mayme" SeylerEllen Catherine AllisonAnna Catherine SeylerJohn Peter "Peter" SeylerJoseph Seyler )

Donald was born 16 Feb 1922 in Derry Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania. He died 17 Dec 1944 in Belgium. He was buried in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Belgium.

Don was a happy-go-lucky fellow, unlike his brother, Ralph, who was more serious. He was a poor student and didn't try very hard in school. He had problems with his dad and couldn't wait to leave home. He lied about his age and, with his father's consent, joined the U.S Army when he was 15 years old.

Don's first assignment was a two year stint in Panama after his basic training. As his discharge date came up and he was home, he couldn't make up his mind whether to reenlist or not. The Depression was just winding down but good jobs were still hard to find, so he made up his mind to stay in the service for a few more years. His base this time was Ft. George G. Meade in Maryland. He could get home rather easily from there. On a pass and out on the town one night he got into a bar fight and was stabbed in the chest, puncturing a lung. His sisters and brother...Florence, Anna and Jim...rushed to Baltimore to be with him in the hospital and stayed till he was out of danger.

Anytime he was home on leave, he enjoyed taking his sister and nieces out for a treat; it was always the same, a big bag of cashews. Back on duty, Don was sent to Cuba to help harvest the sugar crop. In a letter home, he said he almost cut his hand off with a machete while cutting the cane.

Not long after he got back to the states, he met a young woman, June, in Philadelphia and they were married shortly before he was shipped off to Europe. His wife, June, visited the family to get acquainted. It was at a time when Ralph was home on leave after his stint in New Guinea. June was a lovely person and made friends with all the family members that she met.

Wherever Don was, he was a faithful letter writer and the family heard from him often. One of his last letters home, he stated he was writing from a foxhole and some kind of German record book had blown across his path, he grabbed it, tore out the Nazi stamp and enclosed that in his letter.

Don was killed at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, serving with the 38th Inf. Regt., 2nd Inf. Div. At the time, the government was giving the families of fallen servicemen the choice of bringing their loved ones home or burying them where they fell. A family conference was held and his father, Arthur, decided to go with the wishes of his other children and Donald was buried at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery near Liège, Belgium in Plot G Row 11 Grave 51.

After June got word of Don's death, she joined the WACS and finished out the war in uniform. She married again, her new husband visited the Powers family at her request when he was passing through town some years later and they all were glad to hear she seemed happy and had a couple of children.

Donald (relationship status suppressed while one person possibly living) #1842 June E..

Other names for June: June E. Powers.

(Information suppressed while possibly living)


1930 U.S. Census, Derry Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.. Roll: 2155; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 16; Image: 356.0; FHL microfilm: 2341889

1940 U.S. Census, Fort Kobbe, Balboa, Panama Canal, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.. Roll: T627_4642; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 1-5

American Battle Monuments Commision Online Database, http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii.php.

Charlotte Hensel, The Arthur Powers Family, (unpublished, 2007).

Donald Robert Powers birth certificate, no. 412692, file 27319-22, registered no. 70 (6 Apr 1945), Dept. of Health, Pennsylvania.

Personal recollection of Florence (Powers) Deffler, as related to Tad Deffler.


Line Generation: 6

Relationship: Grand-Uncle