Navy Ensign Gerald Earl Mergon was born in Becker, Minnesota on March 9, 1923, the son of Frank Edward Mergon (1886-1958) and Ida Krenz (1887-1983). His father supported the family as a gas station attendant in 1940 while living in Delano Village, Minnesota. Ten years earlier he was a truck driver for a transfer company. By 1942, his son Gerald was in San Diego, California working at an aircraft commissary.
After the war began, he enlisted in the US Navy flight program and was sent to NAS Pensacola for training followed by duty at NAS Jacksonville. But while in Pensacola he met and married Miss Joyce Daffin Simmons Jansma (1925-1994) of 830 East Gregory Street on March 8, 1945. She was the daughter of Joseph and Ruby Simmons of Pensacola. Sadly, they were married only 37 days before he was killed in a military plane crash near Daytona Beach, Florida. Most likely the crash took place over water because his remains were never recovered.
His wife Joyce would eventually marry Couney Shell and following her death in 1994 was buried in the Yellow Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Cherokee, Swain County, NC. Couney would follow her in 2017.
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