Picking My Subject By Random: Cousin Myron Ahlness

Myron Gordon Ahlness: 1923-1974 (Paternal Third Cousin)

Amy Johnson Crow provided a rather cryptic prompt for me to write about this week: Random Number. Puzzled, I turned to her email about the prompt, which read:

“The theme for Week 47 is "Random Number." This is a fun exercise -- pick a random number between 1 and 100. Then…take a list of everyone in your tree and scroll down to that number. Then write a little bit about that person.”

I decided to use her suggestion. I opened my family tree in Ancestry and chose to look at it in list form. I picked the random number of 68 (my recent MegaMillions lottery ticket included that number), counted down to the 68^th person in the tree list, and came up with my blog post subject: my third cousin Myron Ahlness. I knew very little about him, so enjoyed digging a little deeper.

Myron Gordon Ahlness was born August 14, 1923 to parents Hans Ahlness and Ida Jorgine Vee. Ida was my great-grandmother Ragnhild Syverson’s great-niece. Hans Ahlness’ first wife was Ragnhild’s daughter Jorgine, who died in 1908. Ida married Hans in 1913, and became an instant stepmother to Jorgine’s four surviving children. Ida and Hans had another seven children. Myron was the youngest of all their children.

Myron grew up on the family farm in Linden Township in Brown County, Minnesota. He attended school through the eighth grade and then dropped out to help his father and brothers on the farm (information from the 1940 census).

When World War II broke out, Myron was barely eighteen. His draft card shows he was five foot six inches tall, 130 pounds, had brown hair, hazel eyes and a medium complexion. Interestingly, it also states that his pointer finger on his right hand had been amputated at the first joint—probably a farming accident.

Myron eventually enlisted November 6, 1943, at age twenty, joining the Navy. He served until January 21, 1946. I don’t know if he served aboard a ship, and if so, what type of ship and what theater of war. The only records on Fold3 are very generic, and I can’t find any news articles online that provide any information on his war service. According to his military burial record, his rank was SF-3C, which is a Shipfitter Third Class. According to a navy document I found, shipfitters “laid out and fabricated metal construction. Fit and repaired pipes and tubing. Forged, welded and soldered metals. Maintained tanks and watertight fixtures.”

Like many young men who knew they were heading to war, Myron married just months before he shipped out. His bride was Vernelle Fredrickson, and they married at Lake Hanska Church on July 10, 1943. Vernelle was twenty-three and Myron was twenty. The photo below depicts a beautiful wedding, with a handsome young groom and a lovely bride.

Left to right: Kenneth Frederickson, ?, Virgil Schmiesing, Adeline Longworth, Myron Ahlness, Vernelle Ahlness, Vernon Ahlness, Alpha Thordson, Raymond Thordson, ? Younger ones left to right: Tamara Frederickson, Betty Meyer, ?, Lynn Longworth,

Myron and Vernelle’s only child, daughter Leah Rae Ahlness, was born March 18, 1944 while her father was still serving in the Navy.

When Myron mustered out and returned home in 1946, he returned to farming. The 1950 census shows the young couple and little Leah living with Vernelle’s parents on their farm. From news items I found in the Sleepy Eye Minnesota newspaper from the late 1950s and early 1960s, the couple continued to live on the Ingval Fredrickson farm.

Myron died on May 13, 1974. He was only fifty years old. He apparently was buried at the Lake Hanska Cemetery with a military headstone, but I have been unable to find a Findagrave listing or an obituary.

While I may have picked Myron randomly to write about today, I enjoyed taking a look at his life. He was a reminder of how many men stepped up to serve our country when America needed them, and how they then quietly returned home to build families and careers, and to serve their communities. Men like Myron Ahlness are worth remembering.

Sources:

WWII: Petty Officer Ratings by Branch. https://www.ussmarblehead.com/pdf/WWII__PettyOfficerRatings2.pdf

Draft Record for Myron Ahlness. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/records/16296105?tid=46986934&pid=24043755902&ssrc=pt

US Headstone Application for Military Veterans: Myron Ahlness. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2375/records/3460977?tid=46986934&pid=24043755902&ssrc=pt