9th Ward Veteran Interviews - Dick and Louise Heiner

Spotlight on Dick and Louise Heiner

Sister Louise Heiner is the widow of Dick T. Heiner. Their story is quite interesting! Dick enlisted in the Army and served in World War II from 1942-1946. He had been deferred earlier because he was over the age of 28 when the war first broke out. But even though he was 30 years old, he was drafted into the Army after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Dick and Louise’s engagement announcement came out in the paper the same day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. They married twelve days later on December 19, 1941.

Dick reported and served in the 9th Division Ordinance but his knee had been injured and they sent his division over to fight while he was in the hospital. So he was transferred to the 5 th Armored Division but before he got out of the hospital they sent that group off as well. Since Dick was a sharp shooter on the rifle range, he needed to have a good knee, but they ended up having to perform surgery on his knee where they had to remove all of the cartilage. Since he couldn’t go fight in Europe, they wanted to discharge him and they asked him to go home but he refused and said, “Not while there’s a war going on. I want to serve out my time.” So he was transferred again, this time to the Signal Core at Erie Proving Ground in Ohio.

When he was in the hospital for his knee, his new bride, 23-year-old Louise, flew out to be with him. She went with him to Erie Proving Ground in Ohio where they spent the next four years. As a civilian, Louise worked as Secretary to the Adjutant. As a Tech Sergeant over the Signal Core, Dick was in charge of maintaining all the telephone lines, panels, connections, and equipment.

Sister Heiner attributes their solid marriage to the fact that as newlyweds, they lived in an area where they didn’t know anyone so they had to learn to depend upon each other. They were both the babies of their families and had they lived at home, it would have been easy for her to run home to her sisters or for him to go home to his mother, or if he had gone overseas, it would have been easy for her to stay at home and maybe their marriage wouldn’t have been as solid. However, since they were both in an area where neither of them knew one other soul, it cemented their marriage as they learned how to depend and rely upon each other.

When they arrived at Erie Proving Ground in Ohio, Louise went out and walked up a street looking for an apartment. She had an impression to stop at one house and go knock on the door. An older lady answered the door and Louise asked if she had one room she would rent out. The lady said she had been thinking about renting out a room and agreed do so. Dick and Louise lived in one room in this lady’s home for the first two years of their marriage. She was a wonderful lady and friend. Her daughter, a catholic, was very interested in learning more about the Mormon’s and she and Dick had many discussions about the Church and religion. Dick told Louise, “I didn’t know I knew so much about our religion until I was challenged and had these discussions.” Although there were no LDS members and no LDS Church for them to attend, they stayed faithful to their religion.

They lived in an area where people hadn’t heard of the Mormons or the LDS Church. People had weird ideas about the Mormons and they asked Dick, in all seriousness, where his horns were and how many wives he had. However, one man from New York observed, “You care about other people. You are so consider of others. Why?” He was astonished because where he came from he said people would steal from their own mother.

When asked about patriotism, Sister Heiner replied, “That’s the only thing that makes me cry. Whenever I see our flag passing by or waving in the wind, it just affects me. It just thrills me to death. I’ve always been very proud of our United States of America. I always pray for America and for our President—no matter who he is—because they need our prayers. I always pray that the terrorists will not come to fight on our soil.”

During the four years they lived in Ohio, Louise lost six family members: Her Dad died from a stroke, two sisters-in-law passed away, also her nephew, her aunt, and a dear, dear brother who died of a heart attack when he was only 38. She was unable to travel home to attend any of the funerals. They didn’t really talk on the phone like they do now days because it was too expensive to call, but she wrote her parents and Dick’s parents every week and her Mom also wrote letters.

Looking back at the four years in Ohio, Sister Heiner says she wishes she had done more as a missionary. But at the time, everything was so unsettled and so temporary. No one knew how long they would be there before they would be transferred or move out. But she isn’t too hard on herself because experience has taught her, “We do the best we know how at the time. Since Dick died, I’ve lived by faith. I’ve learned to accept things that you can’t control or change.”