LOST LOCAL MARINE TO BE BURIED

A Marine with ties to Kern County who died during World War II will be buried in Kansas City, Missouri 74 years after his death.

18-year-old Donald Tolson is a Bakersfield High graduate who was killed during the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific, but his remains were only found and positively id’d last month. Tolson is the second local Marine who died in that campaign whose body was identified this year after Sgt. William Ball, Jr.

Ball was laid to rest at Bakersfield National Cemetery a few weeks ago, but Tolson will be buried next to his mother in Kansas City, Missouri.

Kelli Pierce