Wyatt Adams also known as Oscar Wyatt Adams, was born in Chicago Lying-in Hospital and first lived in Dana, Vermillion County, Indiana.
"In June of 1925, I moved to 706 So. Central Ave., Paris, Edgar Co., Illinois. Graduated from Paris High School in May of 1934.
I worked with my father in the Adams Insurance Agency until the fall of 1936. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a B. S. Insurance on June 10, 1940. I was also commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Cavalry Reserves.
I was employed by Proctor and Gamble in their St. Louis, Mo. office. Due to my father's illness, I came back to Paris and took over the Insurance Agency on Labor Day of 1940. My father was bedfast until his death on Feb 16, 1941.
I entered the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lt. in the Cavalry Feb 10, 1942 at Ft. Riley, Kansas. After finishing the Cavalry School at Ft. Riley, I was assigned to Recon Troop of the 8th Division, Ft. Jackson near Columbia, So. Carolina.
I was transferred to the 102 Cavalry Regiment at Ft. Jackson in August of 1942. We went overseas in September 1942 and landed in Liverpool, England in October of 1942. We were stationed in Fairford, England, then transferred to Shrivenham Barracks. We shipped out of Scotland on a transport ship with our Squadron's vehicles, on December 16, 1942. We spent New Years Eve in the Rock of Gibraltor Harbor.
We arrived in the harbor at Algiers, No. Africa on Jan. 3, 1943. It took us several days to unload our vehicles. We had German planes dropping bombs every night we were in the harbor. The Squadron was stationed in Douera, No. Africa. Our mission was to have mobil patrol on the roads around Algiers twenty-four hours a day.
On December 31, 1943 we were given the mission to move all of our wheeled vehicles in a convoy to Marakech, No. Africa. It took us three days and nights to travel about one thousand miles. Our mission was to guard Prime Minister Churchill.
When we returned to Douera, we were moved to the Lammata Forest just East of Oram, No. Africa. After a few months training we embarked at Oran on May 13, 1944 and disembarked at Naples, Italy on May 16, 1944.
We saw our first combat in early June when one of our patrols broke thru to Anzio. The troop "C" was asigned to guard General Mark Clark's Fifth Army Advanced headquarter. Our troop escorted General Clark into Rome on June 5, 1944. Our troop spent the first ten days of Rome's freedom camped on the Italian King's Palace grounds.
Our Squadron which is now 117 Cavalry Mechanized Squadron, were pulled out of combat and moved back near Naples, where we staged for the invasion of Southern France. We embarked on landing craft with our vehicles August 8, 1944, stopped off on Corsica, then disembarked behind San Tropez, France on August 15, 1944 "H" hour on "D" Day. We fought our way from Southern France, entered Strasbourg, Alsace Lorraine in late November 1944.
After the battle of Bitche, France we had to acquire new vehicles and men. We crossed the Rhine River and moved east thru Heidleburg.
I became commander of "B" troop on April 16, 1945. We moved southeast on the right flank of the U.S. troops and left flank of the French troop. We crossed into Austria, and the war ended May 8, 1945.
I arrived back in the States with a detachment of men which I escorted to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, MO.
I was discharged at Ft. Sheridan in Chicago, Illinois in December of 1945.

Unk newspaper,
Paris Area Obituaries
Wyatt Adams
Wyatt Adams, 82, Paris, died at 6:20 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 17) at the Paris Community Hospital.
A funeral service will be held at 10:30 am. Friday at the Sutton and Son Funeral Home, with the Rev. Father William Overmann officiating. Burial will follow in Hoult Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and from 9 a.m. until service time Friday at the funeral home. Military graveside rites will be conducted by American Legion Post 211 and V.F.W. Post 3601.
Mr. Adams was born July 14, 1916, in Chicago, the son of Oscar and Eliza Wyatt Adams, both teach-ers. He was raised in Dana and Paris, graduating from Paris High School in 1934. His first wife, Jane Sawyer Adams, died Oct. 2, 1969. He then married Theresa "Tess" Retzer Nov. 6, 1971, at St. Mary's Catholic Church. She survives.
Other survivors include a son, Leith Adams of Los Angeles, Calif.; three stepsons, Gary Bowman of Chestertown, Ind., Thomas William Bowman of Lebanon, and Robert Bowman of Paris; two daughters, Beth Sponholtz of Washington and Lynn McMannon of Peoria; several cousins, including Maude Hopper of Paris and Mary Elizabeth Dunn of Chrisman; six step grandchildren and three step greatgrandchildren.
He worked with his parents at Adams Insurance Agency until he entered the University of Illinois. He graduated with a bachelor of sci-ence degree in insurance in 1940, the first year in which that degree was awarded. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army in North Africa, France and Germany. After the war, he returned to Paris, running the agency until it was sold in the late 1980's to the Ashley-Spillman Agency.
He and his second, wife, Theresa, continued in an appraisal business, working until he entered the hospital last Monday. He was also involved in farming, local area history and [incomplete]

SSDI: ADAMS, WYATT14 Jul 191617 Nov 1998 (V)8261944 (Paris, Edgar, IL)(none specified)Missouri486-22-7842

Possible SSDI: ADAMS, THERESA L24 Apr 192103 Nov 2007 (V)8661944 (Paris, Edgar, IL)(none specified)Illinois333-16-4219