By Deborah Larsen
Harold Lawrence Kelley
Harold Lawrence Kelley was born in Rochester, Michigan, on April 13, 1924, the son of Marion and Ruth Walker Kelley. The Kelley family lived on East Third Street in Rochester. Before the war, Harold worked at National Twist Drill & Tool Company in Avon Township.
In February 1943, Harold entered the U.S. Army. He was attached to a medical unit for 19 months and then trained for the infantry. He was sent overseas with the 273rd Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division, in March 1945. Harold’s unit was involved in the final Allied push through Germany as V-E Day approached. Assigned to Company F of the 273rd, Harold was killed in combat during the capture of Leipzig, Germany, on April 18, 1945. His regimental history described the action in Leipzig on that day: “Company F mounted tanks and TDs and ran the gauntlet of murderous crossfire in the area of Napoleon’s monument to storm and capture the vaunted SS defenses at the new Town Hall.”
Harold Lawrence Kelley was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and was laid to rest in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the Netherlands. He was 21 years old.