Biographies of Our Forefathers
JAMES YEAKEL
James Yeakel was the
fourth child and third son of Rose Ann Tinneny and Joseph Yeakel. He
was born in the family home at 183 School Street in Bala Cynwyd,
Pennsylvania on July 11, 1920 at 6:00 p.m. James was baptized at Saint
Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Manayunk. His godparents were
his mother's sister Kate Tinneny Sickinger's children Frank and Herminie
Sickinger.
Jimmy attended Saint
Mary of the Assumption Grade School and Lower Merion High School. He
played baseball, football and liked to play cards.
He wanted to enlist
for military service in World War II but had some difficulty due to an
eye problem. To get around this problem he enlisted in the United
States Navy Reserve and through that avenue got onto active duty and
combat duty in the war. His first assignment was for training at the
navy base at Newport, Rhode Island. He then was sent for training as an
electrician at Moorehead College in Kentucky. Next he was sent to Fort
Lauderdale, Florida then on to Oakland, California.
Photo:
James Yeakel 1940s courtesy of Jean Yeakel.
After completing the
series of training assignments he left California for years of intense
combat in the Pacific theater of operations. Jimmy was assigned as a
crew member on LST landing craft. These crafts took combat forces from
their ships into the beach heads during the invasions of the islands in
the Pacific. His was a most dangerous assignment since the LSTs were
prime targets for Japanese heavy and small gun fire. He participated in
many of the most dangerous and bloody landings and invasions in the
Pacific war including the invasions of Iwo Jima and Tarrawa. He
suffered shrapnel wounds during these combat operations.
When the war was over
in 1945, Jimmy was discharged with the rank of electricians mate 1st
class. He returned to the United States and lived with his parents and
sister Jean at the family home in Bala Cynwyd. He worked as an
electrician with C. Brooke & Jones Electricians for years. After being
laid off from that job when he was about 38 years old he went to work as
a union elevator mechanic. He was assigned to work on various union
work assignments out of the local union hall. He worked at that job
until he retired when he was 62 years old. When he worked for the
elevator company and people asked him How was your day? Jim would
always respond, "It had its ups and downs."
As
did his mother, Jim suffered from diabetes. He was a heavy smoker and
took sick in May 1984. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died of
that disease at Osteopathic Hospital in Philadelphia on July 17, 1984.
He was buried in the family plot at Calvary
Note:
No descendants
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