ShawneeDispatch.com

Ralph Barksdale, a Shawnee resident and World War II veteran, was just 17 years old when he went off to fight the Germans and, like all growing boys, he needed milk. His German captors, who kept Barksdale as a prisoner of war for nine brutal months, didn't give him any.

Barksdale didn't speak often of his time as a POW and when he did, it wasn't much more than "he saw his comrades falling like flies before his eyes." But, neither the torturous conditions of the prison camp, nor his German captors, could cut short Barksdale's life.

Though he spoke little of his tribulations as a prisoner of war, the experience made a lasting impression. He once told a family member that captors fed the prisoners very little and when they did receive food, it was usually infested with insects.

Barksdale missed fruit -- ripe, delicious fruit -- and ice-cold glasses of milk most of all.

When he died of a heart attack Monday, March 28, 2005 at his Shawnee home, where he'd lived in peace with his family over six decades, his refrigerator was stocked with 4 1/2 gallons of milk.

"Ever since he'd been back from the war he just loved milk," said Jackie Malay, his daughter. "That craving for milk held over from the service for 60 years."

Mr. Barksdale was 79 years old.

Funeral services will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 31, at the Amos Family Chapel of Shawnee. A burial service, with military honors, will follow at the Maple Hill Cemetery. Friends and family may call between 6 and 8 p.m. Wednesday at the chapel.

Mr. Barksdale's family said he wasn't a complicated man -- he loved his family and country, enjoyed working with wood, gardening flowers and was compassionate by tending to wounded animals -- but that he was an exceptional one.

"He always held up his end of everything," Malay said. "I'm proud I knew him.

"He was a good man. He was a good American. He loved his country and he always took care of his family."

Ralph and Dorothy Barksdale were to celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary April 5. Mrs. Barksdale said she's thankful of the six-plus decades she spent with her husband and was looking forward to spending many more with him.

"In a few days it'll be our anniversary and I don't know how I'm going to make it without him," she said.

The couple met at Camp Breckenridge in Kentucky, during a farewell party for Mr. Barksdale's mother, who worked at the same factory as Dorothy. The introduction began a life together that produced two children, Jackie Malay and Joseph Barksdale, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Ralph Barksdale signed up for military service a few months shy of his 18th birthday. He was eager to serve, and had to get permission from his mother before doing so. Malay said her father felt compelled to enter the war.

"He was very patriotic," she said. "He was very proud of being an American and he wanted to fight for his country. That's the way people were back then."

Barksdale was taken prisoner after a firefight between his Army unit and German soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge. He tried to escape from being captured by hiding underneath dead bodies, but enemy soldiers found him. He badly wanted to return to the war effort, Malay said.

After the war, military personnel told Mr. Barksdale he could qualify for disability benefits -- shrapnel was embedded in his neck -- if he entered the hospital, but he shunned their advice so he could return to his family faster.

Mr. Barksdale worked at General Motors for more than 33 years. He and his wife had lived at the same Shawnee home on Quivira Boulevard for 51 years.

He. was born Nov. 7, 1925, in Kansas City, Mo., to Forest and Lola (Hall) Barksdale. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy (Raley) Barksdale; a daughter, Jacqueline Malay and her husband, Robert; a son, Joseph Leroy Barksdale, and his his wife, Opal, all of Kansas City, Kan.; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.