MYVETERAN Honoring the Father who was Taken Away Too Soon
ups think I have a part in it, then I will go and do my part whatever it may be…All I want is to do my part and get back. Let the other fellows have the glory. All I want is to be able to hold my wife and children in my arms again.” Scharlau’s father was born in Indiana. He met and
befriended fellow Indianan Larry Barragree on the way to Iwo Jima. May 13, 1945 – Barragree writes a letter to Bea
Francis Cronkhite holds a young Mary Jo Scharlau at Fort Pendleton in California. Next to him are Scharlau’s mother and brother – Beatrice and Donald.
M
ary Jo Scharlau was different than all of her classmates in her small hometown of Elk Mound, Wisconsin.
Her dad was a genuine hero. But the service that gave him that title left a 2-year-old
Scharlau and her brother, Donald, without a father and her 28-year-old mother a widow. Francis H. Cronkhite was killed in the line of duty in 1945 braving enemy fi re to transport wounded soldiers to safety in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Thanks to her mother, Beatrice, other family members
and friends of her father, she has been able to keep memories of her father alive, learning more and more about the man she never got to grow up with. All artifacts of a life lived fully and compassionately -
a birthday card from her dad, his watch, a photograph, glasses and his Purple Heart - Scharlau keeps safely behind the glass of a 14-inch by 24-inch shadow box that hangs on her bedroom wall. Every item in that box is everything she has of her father. And to honor him, she even wrote a book about his life
and military service. “I understand from the letters he wrote that he was a
noble and caring soul,” she said. November 13, 1944 – Cronkhite writes to his wife’s
parents: “I am depending on you Mother, and you, Dad, to keep
(Bea’s) spirits up as much as possible. I know you will do that. As for our two kiddies, I know they are in good hands with you two to help Bea look out for them…I have no desire to leave, I want no part of war. But if the higher-
Mary Jo Scharlau’s shadow box contains everything she has been given to know about the father she never got to know.
about the loss of his friend and comrade, the man he affectionately called “Cronkie”: “I know I needn’t go into detail about Cronkie’s good points because you are quite familiar with them but he did have many and I will always be thankful for the moral support he gave me. We were together all through the campaign. In fact, we shared the same foxhole.” “Mrs. Cronkhite, you may be proud, very proud of
Cronkie, for he died not only a hero’s death, but he died trying to save some wounded fellows who were badly in need of medical attention.” In October of 2012, during their 50th wedding
anniversary trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, Scharlau and her husband visited the gravesite of the father she did not get to know. “It was a dream fulfi lled, to stand at his grave and tell him ‘Thank you, thank you.’”
AC
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