Parents: Thomas Whalen and Mary Walsh

Siblings: Thomas, Elizabeth (Bessie), John, Joseph, James, Samuel, Margaret, Angela, Kathleen (Sister M. Muriel, IHM) and Mary T.

He was a US Army veteran of World War I, having served in the Infantry, Company 110, 28 Division.

"William A. Whalen, of 400 South Main street, Sebastopol, Jenkins Township, died at 2:15 o'clock Sunday morning at Veterans' Hospital, Bronx, New York City. He had been a patient there for several months and, although friends here were aware that he was being hospitalized, they were unprepared for tidings of his death.

"Bill" Whalen was a Sebastopol boy who had a part in all wholesome activities in his native village. While working at Ewen Colliery, Pennsylvania Coal Company, as a maintenance man, a number of years ago, he was seriously injured - rupture of the spleen - and he had been incpaicitated thereafter.

The late Thomas and Mary (Walsh) Whalen, early settlers in Sebastopol, were Bill Whalen's parents. At the outbreak of World War I, Bill WHalen was inducted into the Army and six weeks later found himself ona boat bound for France, on which the 109th Field Artillery, was being transported. There he made lasting acquaintanceships with Captain Thomas Nugent Troxell and Lient. Leo A. Tierney, of Pittston's Battery "B", 109 Field Artillery, and his "buddy" 'Bob' Hopkins, a friendship that endured until Bill's dying day.

John D. Start Post, No. 542, American Legion, was one of Bill Whalen's affiliations and he attended several of the national conventions in Louisville, Boston, Detroit and Cleveland, among others. He was a member of St. John the Evangelist Church and its Holy Name Society.

While overseas, Mr. Whalen served in the battles of Chateau-Thierry, having been assigned to the 110th Infantry, of the afore-mentioned 28th Division. Other engagements in which he participated were, according to Captain Tierney - the Second Battel of the Marne; the Oise-Aisne offensive in France, along the Vesle River; and the Battle of the Argonne, in September, 1918, as well as the engagement at Toul, France.

Mr. Whalen was for a number of years a member of the Fern Club, a social organization that conducted dances weeky at the Elk's Home here. He never married.

Joseph B. Whalen, who died a number of years ago, and who was interlocuter at the Holy Name Society minstrels (St. John the Evangelist Parish here) was a younger brother of Bill's.

Surviving are four sisters - Miss Bessie Whalen, at home 400 South Main street, Sebastopol; Mrs. William Mack, of Philadelphia; Sister Mary Muriel, of the Order of Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Forest Hills, Long Island, N.Y.; Mrs. William G. Noon, of Washington, D.C."

Pittston Gazette  · Pittston, Pennsylvania · Monday, August 16, 1954  · Page 1