CPL. MASON YARBROUGH

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Cpl. Mason Yarbrough of Sikeston will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church. The Rev. Robert T. Janner of Lebanon, Mo., retired U.S. Air Force chaplain, will officiate. He will be assisted by Msgr. William Stanton, Blair Moran, and several members of Carlson's Raiders. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, with military honors to be conducted by the Honor Guard.

Friends may call at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel from 5-8 p.m. Thursday.

Yarbrough, 21, died Aug. 17, 1942, on Makin Atoll Island in the South Pacific. He was killed in action along with 18 other Marines known as Carlson's Raiders in an assault attack against Japanese forces.

His body was recovered and returned home Dec. 12, 2000.

He was born Aug. 16, 1921, in Casa, Ark., son of James T. and Florence Hubbard Yarbrough, who survived at the time of his death.

Yarbrough enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps June 7, 1941. He was selected to be a Marine Raider and was chosen by Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson to be a member of Carlson's Raiders.

Current survivors include a brother, Granville "Ted" Yarbrough of Matthews, Mo.; three sisters, Marie Holmes of Oran, Mo., Lottie Mon of Tampa, Fla., and Rose Collins of Kansas City, Mo.