Thomas Grant Garlinghouse
October 6, 1919 — January 18, 1943
Thomas Grant Garlinghouse was born in Aitkin County on October 6, 1919. He was the son of Emily "Emma" Norton Shea Garlinghouse of Birch River, Manitoba, Canada and Edward Sylvester Garlinghouse of Aitkin, Minnesota.
He attended Aitkin Public School, Lone Lake School and the Owatonna State School.
He enlisted in the Army on September 19, 1941 and was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps. After just 5 days at Fort McDowell in California, Tom was sent to the Philippine Islands. He was taken prisoner on Thursday, May 7, 1942. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March and was then held as a Prisoner of War in the Osaka Main Camp Chikko, Osaka, Japan. He died on Monday, January 18, 1943. He was 23 years of age.
Tom was buried for a time in the Greenwood Cemetery in Newcastle, Wyoming. However, his loving family always believed his final resting place should be next to his brothers in Diamond Lake Cemetery, Aitkin, Minnesota.
Preceding him in death are an older brother Raymond and a sister, Margaret who died during the flu epidemic of 1918. His brother Owen died in the Battle of the Bulge at the age of 23. Brother Albert and Robert, and sisters Edith Lund and Eileen Bergstrom, Jeanne Olson, Patty Davis and half-sister Betty Jane Copley have since died.
Thomas is survived by a half-brother, Howard Copley of Canon City, Colorado.
The Garlinghouse family and descendants thank Pastor Sandy Berg-Holte for her spiritual guidance and officiating and the Honor Guards of the Aitkin American Legion Lee Post #86 and the Roberts-Glad VFW Post #1727.