Gerald Young

YOUNG, COOK, WAGNER

Posted By: Deb barker (email)
Date: 10/16/2005 at 19:24:05

The Story of Iowa: Family and Personal History
(Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1952) Petersen Vols iii & iv

Pgs 1327-1328
GERALD K YOUNG- A distinguished veteran of World War II, Gerald K Young is currently winning distinction on the home front as the publisher of "The Blakesburg Excelsior," which he reports as having the largest weekly circulation in Wapello County. He was formerly with papers at Fremont and Hedrick and learned the business, including printing, in those communities. He is assisted at Blakesburg by his wife, who is a skilled linotype operator. Mr Young, an influential citizen at Blakesburg and in the county as a whole, is one of the leaders of the Baptist Church in the community.
He was born in Ottumwa, the county seat, on August 24, 1923, the oldest of 5 children of Jesse and Florence (Owings) Young, both of whom are also natives of Wapello County. Jesse Young, who has been with John Morrell & Company, the states largest industry, in Ottumwa since 1922, is a veteran of World War I. He served overseas with the famed Rainbow Division, but was first with the Iowa National Guard on the Mexican Border. In France, he participated in all major campaigns, including those of the Argonne Forest and at Verdun. His son was to have equivalent experience in World War II.
Gerald Young was reared and educated in Ottumwa. He was graduated from the Ottumwa High school in1941. For a time he worked in a grocery store and until February, 1943, was also employed by John Morrell and Company at Ottumwa. At that time he left his job to enter the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He served 18 months in Europe and 18 months in the United States. Assigned to work as a heavy maintenance mechanic, he held the rating of a technical sergeant. He won 4 Battle Stars.
Separated from the service on December 26, 1946, Mr Young returned to Iowa and soon afterward became employee of the "Freemont Gazette" at Fremont. While on the fremont paper he also worked for the "Hedrick Journal" at Hedrick, and on these papers learned the printer's trade and perfected himself for a career as publisher. In April , 1948, he bought the Blakesburg Excelsior, which he has built to a circulation far in excess of 800, the largest of any weekly in the county. In this, he has had the assistance of his wife. The paper, housed in a throughly modern plant, with all the latest machinery for putting out weekly and for job or commercial printing, was established in 1903. Mr Young has extended not only the paper's circulation but also its influence and has himself become a leading figure in the community. He is a Republican and a Baptist. He is a trustee of his church and teaches a junior boy's class in the Sunday school.
On September 14, 1946, Mr Young married Mary L Wagner, the daughter of Joseph M and Dorothy Cook Wagner. Her father, a native of Wapello county, operates a farm about 7 miles east of Blakesburg. Mrs Wagner was born in Davis County. Another daughter of the Wagners, Frances Jean, was in 1949 at school in Ottumwa. Mrs Young, aside from working on the Blakesburg Excelsior as linotype operator, is active in the community.
The other children of Jesse and Florence Owings Young are: 1. Bernard Wayne Young, born on September 16, 1924, is now a practical printer with John Morrell & Company at the County seat. He is a veteran of World War II, who served overseas with the United States Navy Signal Corps, attached to the Army Air Force in the South Pacific. He married Barbara Blazer and is the father of Kenton Craig Young, born March 9, 1947. 2. Arline, now Mrs George Rattiff, living in Ottumwa, where her husband is in the trucking business, is the mother of Carol Jean Rattiff, born January 20, 1949. 3. Lavonne Adline Young, born November 25, 1933, was a junior at Ottumwa High School in 1949. Judy K Young, the publisher's youngest sister, was born March 5, 1943.