![]() But soon promoted to Headquarters Company as an S-2 Intelligence Officer, he went overseas and fought in the frozen conditions of the Battle of the Bulge and contracted pneumonia. Training for desert warfare, he learned how to drive tanks as well as shoot rattlesnakes - the rattles he sent back to his terrified girlfriend Edna back home. With the onset of WWII, he left the university, enlisted in the US Army and became a part of the 19th Tank Battalion of the 9th Armored Division under General Patton. He was preceded in death by his father Germano and mother Mary, sister Lena and brother Rudy.Ĭoming from humble beginnings, the son of immigrants from Austria, he left home in Wausau and hitchhiked to Madison working odd jobs to start his studies at the University of Wisconsin. He is further survived by step great grandchildren Spencer, Avery, Tegan and Riley. The entire family so cherished the advice they sought from him. They thought him to be the "sweetest man" they knew. He is further survived by his sister Mary Ann Augustine, his 4 children, Nolan (Diantha), Diane Drake (Tom), Stuart (Betsy), Douglas (Leigh), his AFS son from Brazil Tycho Fernandes and the 8 grandchildren he so adored, Shannon (Clint), Zach, Katie, Lindsay (Eric), Jacque, Jordan, Max and Zoe. A decade later, Edna Dassler became his wife of 76 years. He is survived by the young lady who first spotted him in 1936 at age 14 at a baseball game in Wausau, WI where he was dressed in knickers and a bow tie. ![]() Loving husband, father, grandfather, benefactor, civic leader, veteran and welcoming and generous friend to so many, Joseph James Zadra entered the home God had waiting for him on Friday June 30th.
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