PVT Owen H. Petersen
15 Jan 1898 – Sep 1982
USAR
WWII
Owen Hartwid Petersen was born Aage Harvig Petersen on January 15, 1898 in Vejle, Denmark to Nikolai and Ane Jepsen Petersen.
He arrived in New York on the S.S. United States with a friend from Vejle on February 29, 1924. By 1926, Petersen was in Chicago where he applied for citizenship and a legal name change in 1931. He was naturalized on January 31, 1935.
Petersen was living in Arlington Heights when he enlisted in the U.S. Army on November 7, 1942. He served with Company E, 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division (nicknamed "Old Hickory"), also known as the "Break Through Regiment" for its role in the St. Lo breakthrough. The regiment saw extensive combat in Europe, including the Normandy campaign, the battle for St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge, and the crossing of the Rhine River. Petersen was honorably discharged as a Private on December 11, 1945.
For more than 25 years, he worked at Benjamin Electric Mfg. in Des Plaines, an industrial lighting firm, where he met his wife, Hazel Jahnke. They were married by 1947 when they converted a barn on Grove Avenue into their Barrington home.
Private Owen Petersen died September 10, 1982 in Barrington; he is buried with his wife in Evergreen Cemetery.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.