Richard Daugherty

On Sept. 7, 1968, Richard Daugherty of Waterloo was buried at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church Cemetery. 

According to that week’s issue of the Waterloo Republican, military services were held at the cemetery, with Granite City soldiers carrying Richard’s flag-draped casket to the grave. A squad of riflemen from Scott Air Force Base performed a rifle salute and a bugler played taps.

When it was all over, the flag covering the casket was presented to Elvira Daugherty, Richard’s mother. 

“It was solemn and sad all at the same time,” Judy Vogt, Richard’s sister, said of the funeral. 

Richard was the first Waterloo and second Monroe County casualty of the Vietnam War. 

The 1967 Waterloo High School graduate was born on Feb. 3 1949. He entered military service in November 1967.  

He left for Vietnam on May 1, 1968. On Aug. 26 of that year, he died when his observation post came under a mortar attack. He was 19. 

Richard’s family, which included his father Charles, mother and 14 siblings, never found out more about how he died. They were not even allowed to open the casket to see his remains. 

While in the Army, Richard attained the rank of corporal, earned two Expert Shooting Medals and received a Gold National Defense Medal. 

Before the Army, though, his family and friends knew him as more than just a crack shot. 

Three of Richard’s surviving sisters, Barbara Kleine, Joann Hertzler and Vogt, wrote in a note to the Republic-Times that  he was loved by all.

“He had a loving personality and was very well liked,” the trio wrote. “Richard would do things for you without a second thought. He was very, very kind. He is missed by all who knew him. He died too young.”

Before entering the military, Richard worked on the approximately 500-acre family farm. He also built a hog operation and was a member of the FFA. 

According to a biography of Richard in the book “Veterans of Monroe County, Illinois,” taking care of animals was one of his hobbies.

“He liked to fish with a cane pole, play baseball and care for the farm animals,” the book says.  

When he went into the military, Vogt, who was two years younger than Richard, said it was hard for the whole family.

“It was just a sad time for us all to see him leave and possibly become injured,” she said. “We kept writing letters. We were a very religious family and kept praying he would come back home.”

Hertzler, two years Richard’s senior, was the one who usually wrote the letters because of her close relationship with her brother. 

“Joann and Richard were like two peas in a pod,” Vogt remembered. 

After joining the military, Daugherty excelled and became a leader.

“People would follow him because he had the common sense it took to get the job done,” Vogt said. “Right off the bat they noticed that. He would really just take care of anybody that was around him because they came first. He was just a good guy.”

The three sisters said they could see that selflessness even before Richard went to war.

“He was there for the family and continued to be there for his country,” they wrote.

Vogt said that to Elvira, family was of paramount importance. So when Richard’s parents found out he had been killed, there was only one way to inform the family.

“Mom had all the family together so everybody would know at the same time that he had passed away,” Vogt recalled. “I was a senior at the time in high school and I was called out of class to come home.”

Now, Charles and Elvira are next to Richard in the family’s cemetery plot. His brother Edward and sister Pauline Mollet have also died. 

Still living are brothers James, Harold and Gerald Daugherty and sisters Dorothy Hudson, Mary Daugherty, Margaret Klein/Schaefer, Charlene May, Kleine, Hertzler, Elizabeth Valois, Vogt and Pat Humes. 

In the book, the family wrote that it still hurts to have lost Richard. 

“Rich gave his life for his country and for our freedom,” the book reads. “He’ll live in our hearts and minds forever. Our family will always love, respect and honor him. It saddens our hearts that Richard is not with us to share in our lives. We thank God for giving our family such a brother, even for a short time.” 

That book was published in 2008, 40 years after Richard’s death. Vogt said the family’s feelings haven’t changed after 10 more years.

“It’s just sad all the way around that he would have to go over there and die,” Vogt said as her voice caught in her throat. “I hate the fact that he didn’t get the chance to continue living, to come home and have a life that would have been established. 

“I know the girl he was going out with. They would have gotten married. He missed out on having family, children and all the lives he would have affected after he returned home. I just miss him.”