Lavaca County bids a fond farewell to the last of its ‘Greatest Generation’

As the final days of 2024 slip quickly past, we pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that this year truly marked the end of an era for everyone who calls Lavaca County their home.

For when friends and family members gathered last month to remember the extraordinarily long life of a loved one, they also laid to rest the last county’s last known surviving veteran to have fought in World War II.

Mr. Elroy A. Tesch, a man who once told us he’d left his Rocky Creek farm for the war and spent the rest of his days staying as close to that farm as he possibly could, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Nov. 16, just 37 days shy of what would have been his 102nd birthday.

Readers may recall us having the opportunity to visit with Mr. Tesch, albeit briefly, a couple of years back at his 100th birthday celebration, an event his family chose to hold at the historic Wied Hall back in 2022. It was at that time he was identified as the county’s last living veteran from World War II.

As friends and family members packed the place that December day, we asked Mr. Tesch to share with us some of his most memorable military experiences from that Second World War.

That’s when he told us about his time in Europe chasing Nazis and how, after they landed at Normandy, like so many other soldiers did that day, they started marching and never let up until they’d marched all the way to Berlin.

There, he remembered it being so cold, the possibility of digging a foxhole was impossible because of the frozen ground.

Another memory he shared involved his departure for war and his return. Upon leaving in 1943, he told us recalled throngs of people, all out cheering and parades being held in honor of the departing servicemen.

Yet despite following a nearly identical route back home in 1946—after the surrenders of both German and Japanese armies, officially ending both theaters of conflict—they arrived at the same New York harbor in deafening silence. They were victorious on all fronts, but not a soul was there to greet them as they made their return.

Coming home, Mr. Tesch said he could have gone most anyplace he wanted to find work with some of the fellows he knew from the war. He decided instead to return home to the farm he left behind on Rocky Creek, and from what he told us then, there he would remain as often as he could.

He took work with Lane Water Wells, and his children would later recall him and their mother travelling together whenever he had jobs on the road. Mr. Tesch would retire as lead fabricator for the Houston-based EFCO and once again return to the place where he was born, where he took to gardening, raising bees and playing dominoes whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Born the eldest of eight children to Alfred Sr. and Lilie Rother Tesch, he married his life’s love, Louise, who preceded him in death in May 2014 after 62 years of marriage.

They left behind six children—Elroy Jr., Katherine (Hays), Cecilia (Overstreet), Mike, Robert and Rick—14 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and scores of friends and extended family members throughout the area.

His remembrance was held at the Zion Lutheran Church in Sublime on Friday, Nov. 22, with a funeral service led by Pastor Herb Beyer.

He was laid to rest at Hallettsville City Cemetery, where many of his fellow brothers in arms from that war had already gone before him.

Members of the Hallettsville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6382 provided a proper military send off, complete with 21-gun salute, the playing of Taps and a ceremonial flag folding to present his children with a small token of remembrance from a very grateful nation.

We salute you for your service, Mr. Tesch, and thank you for everything that you and your generation did to make America what it is today.