STARK, JEROME J.

First Sergeant Jerome J. Stark, aged 27, of the United States Marine Corps, a brother of Miss Adelaide Stark of 1313 Thirteenth Street and well known in Altoona through frequent visits here before and after he entered the Marine Corps, has been reported as killed in action [September 14, 1942] in a landing at or in the vicinity of Guadalcanal.

While no official word has been received from the government, other than that he was missing last November, his family has been informed recently of his death by two fellow Marines, who reported that they saw him fall, that his body was not recovered from the sea. The several young men had planned among themselves to notify each other’s families should anything occur to them.

Sergeant Stark would have completed four years’ service in the Marine Corps last May 20, having entered from Dunlo, Cambria County, his home at the time. He was a son of Joseph H. and Mary (Smeader) Stark, the latter deceased, and was born in Dunlo on March 22, 1916.

Hi father, who now resides in Flint, Mich., and a brother, First Sergeant John F. Stark, just recently retired from the 9th Armored Division at Fort Riley, Kan., are both visiting Miss Adelaide in Altoona at the present time.

Sergeant Stark’s sacrifice of his life is the third ultimate contribution of the family to the nation’s wars, two brothers having died in the First World War. Walter S. Stark died in the armed forces in Texas and Lawrence E. Stark in action in France.

Surviving members of the family, in addition to the father, sister and brother in Altoona, are James Leo Stark, who is serving in the United States Navy, present whereabouts undetermined; Miss Clare, a nurse in Philadelphia, George Stark and Mrs. George Campbell, both of Flint, Mich., and Joseph Stark of Philadelphia.