Thomas J Hein, USMC
Tom Hein
“T J”
Tom was my uncle. My Mom, Dolores (Hein) Dexheimer was his sister.
If you have any interest in family history, I strongly recommend Ancestry.com. It’s a web-based service that really delivers on what it promises. It offers amazing access to online historical records and the genealogy research of thousands of others seeking their family histories. Once in a while you may find someone with a connection to you. If you do join, please post lots of scanned images (high res please, 300 to 600 dpi). People will be snatching them left and right to add to their trees. And you will be able to find where your families connect. My subscription to ancestry is the best spent money deducted monthly from my credit card. And they keep improving it.
I mention this today, because I was recently contacted by the sister-in law of my Uncle Tom. She saw a photo of Tom on my Ancestry page. He was a confirmed bachelor and ladies man until he met Dorie, the love of his life. After a few short years together Dorie died of cancer. Tom was a proud Marine who never talked about the war. He always drove a Cadillac convertible. And he always gave all his nieces and nephews two-dollar bills for Christmas. Hearing from Dorie’s sister was a priceless gift.
The following is a message I sent to Kathy today:
When Mom was going through chemo from 2004 through 2009, I would spend many Thursdays in Appleton, and many times we would visit Tom in the afternoon at the ever-changing nursing home. Mom and I were just starting to do ancestry research, and one time we asked Tom if he knew anything about the mystery of Uncle Ed. Ed was one of their uncles who apparently disappeared for several years from around 1918 to sometime in the 1930’s. I discovered it when I was showing Mom some old photos that I had scanned. When she saw one she said, “That’s uncle Ed. It must be from after he got back.” Got back? From where? He came back with a new name, Ed Schultz, instead of Ed Hein. And a whole new family and life. Apparently he was welcomed back fondly by everyone, but especially my grandfather, Martin Hein. Ed owned a Mobil Station in Milwaukee and I remember him as one of the friendliest of my great uncles. My guess was that he had been in prison. But when we asked Tom, he didn’t bat an eye before saying “He knocked up some girl and ran away.” Mom didn’t believe him, thinking it was just Tom being Tom. But I researched it at the courthouse and found a marriage record for Uncle Ed when he was still a teenager; and I found a World War I draft registration card several months later from Aberdeen, S.D. on which he had first used the name Schultz. I later found out that he had lived with his brother William Hein who had farm in Aberdeen. I have been unable to find any record of the person he married, any divorce record or anything about a child. But Tom was right. And sharp, and outrageous as long as we visited him.
Tom would often ask me to give him a ride to Madison so he could visit his friends in Monona. I would tell him anytime, and once he took me up on it. His brothers and sisters were worried. They didn’t think he was healthy enough to be traveling, but we were fine. And we had a great two hours to talk. My daughter Samantha was riding with us and we tried to get Tom to talk about his service in WWII. I knew he always made light of it and didn’t talk much about it. But I also new he was very proud of his service as a Marine. I think some of his family assumed that he had some cushy desk job and had somehow managed to avoid any real combat. I would always argue that he was a MARINE. They all saw combat. Well Tom was still pretty closed-mouthed on the way back to Madison. But he did tell us that it was pretty bad. He asked if we’d seen the Tom Hanks movie Saving Private Ryan. He asked if we remembered the opening scenes of the D-Day landing that went on for a long time with the waters turning red with blood. We told him yes, of course we remembered. Tom said, “It was worse than that.”
I’d like to find more info about his service record. But have not had much luck. Next time I see my Uncle Jerry, I’m going to ask if he’ll make a formal request to the Marine Corps. All I have so far is a news clipping from the Appleton Post Crescent from when he was home on leave in 1944. He listed all the worst battles of the Pacific, saying he’d been there. But that was all he would say.
I would love to see any photos you have of Tom and Dorie. I’m only sad that we didn’t connect before my Mom died. She would have been so excited to know we were exchanging email. I remember going through family photos shortly before she died and she wished we had more pictures of Dorie.
Tom on leave – 1944
Division St, Appleton, Wisconsin
“Tom, the man”
Caption from Mom’s 1946 photo album
The quintessential TJ in his Cadillac convertible
Uncle Ed and me in Waukesha
Uncle Ed’s gas station in Waukesha
dexheimer 
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