Thomas William Gease – Sergeant, United States Army

From a contemporary press report

Thomas William Gease, age 83, of 193 Shadowline Drive, Boone, North Carolina, died December 10, 1999 at Glenstone Health Care. He was a native of Columbus, Ohio, born September 2, 1916, a son of the late John Henry and Bertis Minthum Gease.

He had lived in Westerville, Ohio and was an electrician with Local IBEW 683. After retirement, he moved to Stuart, Florida, and then to Charleston, South Carolina. He had been a parttime resident of Watauga County, North Carolina, for 30 years and wished to return to Boone, North Carolina.

He entered WW II in 1941 and was taken POW on the Phillipine Islands, having survived the infamous Death March of Bataan and Corregidor. He was a sent to Mukden, Manchuria where he remained until the war ended in 1945.

He was a member of the V.F.W., D.A.V., the QUAN, American Ex-POW, Kentuckian Chapter and Florida Chapter of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor and the I.B.E.W.

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Helen Fordyce Gease of Boone, N.C.; three children, Dennis Gease and wife, Susan of Denver, Colo., Lenora Van Alstyne and husband, Lewis of Orlando, Fla., Anita Hicks and husband, Charles of Sugar Grove, N.C.; brother, John H. Gease of Bel Aire, Md.; sister, Nancy Gease of Colorado Springs, Colo.; 3 grandchildren, Lewis Van Alstyne III, Aimee Hicks and Bradley Hicks.

There will be no calling hours or funeral service. Service and burial with military honors will be scheduled later at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice of Watauga County, 136 Furman Rd., Boone, N.C. 28607.

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