5/19/2011 5:00:00 AMRhodes ROTC to honor World War II soldier

May 19, 2011

WKYC-TV -- After 2 and a half years of research by a Rhodes High School librarian, Pvt. Donald Owens will get a final send off from Rhodes ROTC cadets at Arlington National Cemetery.

Donald Owens was a student at Rhodes High School until he went into the army in World War II.

"We have a real hero in Northeast Ohio," says Myra Stone, the school librarian. Once Myra learned that Owens was a student at Rhodes High School, she decided to try to find his surviving family. They live in Mobile, Alabama.

His remains were positively identified in recent years. He was killed in a tank explosion in France.

On August 23, there will be a burial at Arlington National Cemetery and the family has requested that the Rhodes ROTC be there.

There is also a permanent marker that will be unveiled in July to pay tribute to Owens and two other soldiers who were killed in that tank in 1944.