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Re: Fran Agnes, WW II POW Passes

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 20, 2003

"Fran Agnes, World War II POW, dies at 80

By Sarah Anne Wright
Seattle Times staff reporter

Fran Agnes refused to hang wind chimes. To him, they sounded like the hollow canteens prisoners held as they waited for water at the single spigot in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp.

He survived 3-1/2 years as a POW, but rarely spoke of it. Later, though, he would make sure that veterans were honored with color-guard ceremonies and burials in veterans cemeteries. He was instrumental in establishing the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent in 1997.

"He is the one who is responsible for getting that national cemetery here," said James Richardson, friend and colleague at the American Ex-Prisoners of War.

Helping veterans "was very important to him," said his wife, Marlene Agnes, of Everett.

Retired Air Force Capt. Francis Wilfred Agnes, survivor of the Bataan Death March, died Feb. 9 of cardiac arrest. He was 80.

He was born April 28, 1922, in Haynes, N.D., to Francis Agnes, an Irish immigrant, and Pauline Krawczyk. His father, a coal miner, left North Dakota for a job with the Works Project Administration in Wenatchee during the Great Depression.

There young Agnes played on the high-school baseball team. Soon after graduation, he enlisted to serve in World War II.

While serving with the 20th Pursuit Squadron in the Philippines, Capt. Agnes was captured in an early battle. He endured the Bataan Death March, which forced 70,000 Americans and Filipinos captured at Mariveles to walk 70 miles to Camp O'Donnell. Only 54,000 reached the camp.

Capt. Agnes, who turned 20 on the march, survived six months as a prisoner at Camp O'Donnell and a year at Camp Cabantuan before boarding the Japan-bound Coral Maru.

Working as slave labor at Seitetsu Steel in Hiro Hata, 30 miles from Hiroshima, Capt. Agnes saw an explosion on the horizon, not realizing its magnitude. "(We) didn't know it was the atomic bomb," Capt. Agnes told his wife. When the war ended, Mr. Agnes, who was 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighed around 100 pounds. After recuperating in San Francisco, he returned to Wenatchee for a short stay. Telling his father that he wasn't going to pick apples for the rest of his life, he re-enlisted with the Army Air Corps, which later became the Air Force. He served for more than two decades, retiring in 1961.

He had three children with his first wife, Patricia Bertach, of Spokane, before their divorce. He was employed with the Washington State Job Service, retiring as operations manager in 1987.

While working in Spokane, he met Marlene Murie when she came to his agency looking for a job. She was immediately drawn to his sense of humor and his kind nature.

They were married on Dec. 12, 1975.

After his retirement, Capt. Agnes worked on measures to honor veterans, including supporting legislation that guaranteed a color guard at veterans' funerals, helping veterans get disability payments and volunteering on behalf of the Veterans Administration and the Association of Retarded Citizens. He also coached Little League baseball for more than 20 years.

Along with his wife, he is survived by daughter Kathleen Freeman of Burien; sons David Agnes of Burien and Gregory Agnes of Simpsonville, S.C.; stepdaughters Rose Dennis of Bellevue and Sonja Verlanic, of Missoula, Mont.; 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A brother, Edward Agnes of Wenatchee, died earlier.

Services have been held. Memorials may be sent to the Ex-Prisoners of War, 3201 E. Pioneer Parkway, Arlington, TX 76010; Tahoma National Cemetery Support Group, Attn: Robbie Robertson, 6619 58th Ave. N.E., Seattle, WA 98115; or in honor of grandson Matthew Dennis to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 530 Dexter Ave N., #300, Seattle, WA 98109.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company "