Affair of the Heart

The body of Pfc. Alton B. Sterner, killed last June in Korea, came home to Rockwood (pop. 1,237), Pa., with an official Army escort, Sergeant Ira Frank Green, 25. He had known Sterner and had been in correspondence with the dead man's 19-year-old widow Alma. Green asked Alma to marry him. The widow quickly said yes.

Two days after the body arrived, the couple hurried off to nearby Cumberland, Md., were married, hurried back, packed a bag and left Rockwood—two full days before Sterner's funeral. The speed of the romance left Rockwood a little indignant. But Army spokesmen said that the sergeant had broken no regulations. At week's end, Alma, now settling down in Green's home town, Waterbury Center, Vt., explained everything: "I have a bad heart," she said, "and didn't think it would be a good idea to attend the funeral."