By CLARA KILBOURN

The Hutchinson News

HOISINGTON -- Sixty years after he left town as a high school graduate with his heart set on becoming a medical doctor, Eddie Schwartz came home Wednesday.

Second Lt. Edward "Eddie" Schwartz's flag-draped casket, accompanied by a military escort, was flown from Hickam Air Field in Hawaii to Kansas City, Mo., and transported to Hoisington.

There, he will be laid to rest at 2 p.m. Saturday in his family's plot at St. John Catholic Cemetery.

On Nov. 28, 1950, Eddie, then 21 years old, was killed in action during the Korean War. His remains were not uncovered until 2000, and he positively was identified in January.

Speaking from his home in Topeka, Dr. Eugene Schwartz said his youngest brother's homecoming evoked a "mixed emotion of grief and closure."

'A great little brother'

The youngest of seven children born to their parents, William and Louisa Prosser Schwartz, Eddie Schwartz enlisted in the U.S. Army right out of high school, hoping the G.I. Bill of Rights would help pay for a college education.

"Eddie was a great little brother," Schwartz said.

"I was four years older and was at the University of Kansas, had become interested in medical school through a good friend," Eugene Schwartz said. "Eddie wanted to follow me."

A graduate in the Hoisington High School Class of 1947, Eddie Schwartz was active in football, basketball and track.

He was accepted into Officers' Candidate School at Fort Riley and commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry July 22, 1949, the elder Schwartz said.

From there, Eddie Schwartz served briefly at a California post and was transferred to Okinawa in January 1950. Soon after, South Korea was invaded by North Korean troops.

"Eddie's unit was transferred to the South Korean peninsula," Schwartz said.

After several months, American forces moved into North Korea. As they advanced farther, his brother's unit was heavily engaged in battle, and Eddie Schwartz was killed in action.

'Everybody liked him'

In the irony of war, Francis Behr of Hoisington, a classmate of Schwartz, also was in Korea. They had both been in Japan at the same time, and while they didn't see each other, they corresponded by mail.

"We were both in the 25th Infantry, Eddie was in the 35th Regiment and I was in the 90th Field Artillery in support of the 35th Regiment," Behr said. "They were right ahead of us. We were giving them support when the Chinese came across the Yalu River that borders between North Korea and China."

After the Chinese came across, they pulled back, Behr said.

"We had a land line telephone wire from our artillery to Eddie's infantry," he said. "I called as soon as we settled down and asked to talk to Lt. Schwartz. They told me he had been killed two hours before."

He wrote to his folks about it, and they knew before the Army notified Schwartz's family, Behr said.

Behr spent an afternoon with Eddie's parents after he came home.

Both their families were members of St. John Catholic Church, and he and Eddie were friends. His friend was "a typical teen," tall and muscular, "an average Joe," Behr said.

Another classmate, Hoisington dentist Dr. Keith Ritter, remembered he and Eddie double-dated for the junior-senior prom in their senior year.

"He was a farm boy in a big family, really a good guy," Ritter said. "Everybody liked him."

Merna Bell Mills, also of Hoisington, was Eddie's date for that prom. They corresponded for a while, and then she became engaged to someone else.

"He was a good student, a great basketball player, tall and handsome," she said. "That was the last I saw of him."

A family's closure

His brother's death brought sadness to their entire family, Eugene Schwartz said. Through the years, he dealt with it by pushing it to the back of his mind, but it has come forward with the return of the remains.

He and his wife, Peggy, were on the tarmac when his brother's remains arrived at the Kansas City airport.

"This will bring closure, but I'm not certain whether I will ever recover," he said.

Their mother was "a realistic woman" who adapted to the tragedy.

"She transferred her feelings to her grandchildren, who helped assuage the grief of losing Eddie, her youngest son," Schwartz said.

Eddie Schwartz was followed in death by his parents; brothers, Elmer, Ray and Don; and sisters, Helen Sullentrop and Elizabeth Schwartz.

He will be laid to rest in the family plot with his parents, a sister and two brothers.

For his valor in action, Eddie Schwartz was awarded the Silver Star posthumously. If he had lived, he would be 80 this year.