World War II Army veteran's belongings returned to relatives

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Wanda Hadden and Linda Strayhan are sisters from Denton. They have been on a mission tracing their ancestors.

“I enjoy finding out where my great grandparents came from and aunts and uncles all of that,” said Hadden.

Just a couple of weeks before, Tony Alonzo told FOX 26 News that he wanted to find relatives of World War II veteran Charles Cletus Wilkinson to give them what his wife had found in a storage unit.

The items included medals, a flag and a Western Union telegram.

After the FOX 26 story with Alonzo was posted, Strayhan said she was contacted about it from others looking for their ancestors. As it turns out, Wilkinson is their great uncle.

The sisters showed FOX 26 an old black and white picture with Wilkinson’s mother, their grandmother and his sisters. He’s also in the old photograph, but it’s hard to point him out.

Hadden and Strayhan say they remember meeting their great uncle Cletus, but they were very young and don’t really remember him much.

“They’re in your blood and that’s the exciting thing about it,” said Hadden.

Wilkinson was a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, served overseas for eighteen months and supervised the work of seventeen men.

The sisters were thrilled to get all his medals and other memorabilia.

Before the sisters left Houston, FOX 26 joined them at one of the city's oldest cemeteries where their great grandfather, who is Wilkinson’s father, is buried.