CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Erwin Shaftsbury King was about six years older than James Pierce when he joined the Marines. 

 

Pierce, now 92, grew up near the King family on West Road, where he still lives. He remembered King as just one of the kids.

 

"We were all neighborhood kids. We all played together," he said. "He was one of the kids, we always had a good time together, because those days you had to make your own fun. You didn't have television."

 

King had left Drury High in North Adams just six weeks after Pearl Harbor to enlist in the Marines and never returned home — until now. 

 

Community members, veterans and local officials turned out in Clarksburg and North Adams to greet the returning hero, who died 82 years ago at the Battle of Guadalcanal. Attempts to recover King's remains, and nine others who died with him on Sept. 24, 1942, had been unsuccessful for decades until their graves were uncovered six years ago. 

 

On Friday, he was escorted by police and Dalton American Legion Riders from Bradley International Airport to Clarksburg, for a brief wreath-laying ceremony, and then to Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals in North Adams. 

 

Pierce, who retired from North Adams Regional Hospital 30 years ago, is likely one of the few people who knew King though he still has nieces and nephews in the area. 

 

One of his great-nieces, Rachel Clarke Maselli wiped away a tear as the procession turned in at Clarksburg Town Hall. 

 

"I got more emotional than I thought I would," she said. "I mean, to think about he was so young and ... he had such pride to do something and go there. And then the heartbreak of being 18 and losing your life, and then the fact that the military continues to look, I mean, 80 years! They never gave up. And I think that it's very impressive, but it's very touching."

 

Maselli's father, Mark Clarke, had given a DNA sample several years ago to aid in the confirmation of his uncle's remains. His mother was Erwin's older sister Gertrude King. Lynda Pruden of North Pownal, Vt., Judith Richard of Warner, N.H., and Bruce LaBonte of Bradenton, Fla., the children of another sister, Lucille King LaBonte, had been contacted when King's identity had been confirmed. 

 

A wake for King will be held at Flynn & Dagnoli's West Chapels from 5 to 7 on Monday evening. Burial with military honors will a noon at Southview Cemetery following a service at 11 at the funeral home. Tammy Lussier of the American Legion Auxiliary said flags will be placed at the cemetery to symbolize those still missing in action. Students from Drury High School across the street from the cemetery are also expected to attend. 

 

King will be buried with his parents, Erwin C. and Emelia LaFountain King, who purchased three plots as they waited for his return.

 

Of the 10 men in Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division who fell during the attack in the Solomon Islands, five have still not been identified. King is also memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

 

Pruden and Clarke arrived with the procession Friday afternoon and Pruden laid a wreath at the memorial stone at Town Hall. The VFW's Joseph Bushika offered words of remembrance. 

 

"When the call of our country was heard, Erwin Shaftsbury answered," said Bushika. "He bravely marched away with an abiding faith in his God, his country and his flag. The red of our country's flag was made redder still by his heroism. The white stayed pure by the motives that impelled him. And in the starry field of our nation's glorious banner, the blue has been glorified by the service he gave to American ideals.  ... 

 

"Though we did not know him personally, we may be comforted by the assurance that Erwin is at rest in God's eternal place of peace and happiness."