A piece of her father’s military past

ARLINGTON – Dorothy Kortlever always wondered what her father looked like.

The 73-year-old Marysville woman never met Marion Van Der Werff. All she knew about him was that he died during World War II.

Dan Bates / The Herald

After the formal presentation of her father’s flag by Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Graffe (left), Dorothy Kortlever, 73, of Marysville is comforted by her son, Dale Kortlever, 45, of Arlington Saturday afternoon at Weller Funeral Home in Arlington. At left is Dianna Kern Kortlever, Dale Kortlever’s wife.

“I had no idea what he looked like,” she said.

But her father’s service to his country during the war wrapped Kortlever in awe on Saturday.

The U.S. Marine Corps presented an American flag to Kortlever, the closest living relative of Van Der Werff, a private with the 164th infantry.

Van Der Werff died on Nov. 22, 1942, at age 30 after being hit by sniper fire on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Kortlever only recently learned how he died.

Shortly after her birth, Kortlever was taken to be raised by her grandmother in South Dakota, she said. At about 12, she moved to Lynden with her grandmother.

Dorothy Kortlever, 73, of Marysville recently received her father’s Purple Heart and a 48-star U.S. flag.

Life went by, and Kortlever married, had four children – two boys and two girls – and worked as a housecleaner for more than 40 years.

Just before Thanksgiving, Kortlever received her father’s picture from relatives in South Dakota to whom she had written. The photo showed a man wearing a Marine uniform and holding a rifle with both hands. The picture showed her father, but instead Kortlever saw her son’s face.

“That’s my son, Dale. Exactly looks like him,” she said of the picture.

Afterward, Kortlever’s South Dakota relatives sent her the U.S. flag and Purple Heart the War Department had sent to them after her father died. A Marine lance corporal officially presented the flag to her in a ceremony on Saturday

Knowing about her father filled a hole in Kortlever’s life, said her son’s wife, Dianna Kern Kortlever.

“I think it’s peace of mind that’s the best thing for her,” Kern Kortlever said.

Kortlever said she would put the flag and the medal in a frame to display in her home. Knowing of her father’s military past and finally seeing his face cheered up Kortlever, whose husband died last spring of lung cancer after 54 years of marriage.

“It made me feel a little bit happier,” she said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@ heraldnet.com.

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