The Four in the Photo

Robert Ross Moore, the soldier in the famous homecoming photograph, spent four decades in the Army and National Guard, retiring in 1963 as a brigadier general. He spent five years on active duty during World War II, first leading troops in battle in North Africa and then starting a combat command course for officers at Fort Benning, Ga. Army records say he was 5 feet 10 inches tall, with gray eyes and brown hair. As a civilian, he was a partner in the Moore Bros. drugstore in Villisca, Iowa, and later was city clerk in Red Oak, Iowa, and bailiff of the Montgomery County District Court in Red Oak. He died after a stroke in 1991.

Dorothy Dee Moore was the oldest of three sisters (she also had two brothers) who worked for their mother at Goldie's diner on the square in Villisca after their father died. She was married to Bob Moore for 48 years. She had a son and a daughter and, except for helping in the drugstore, stayed at home to care for the house and family. She died of cancer in 1982.

Nancy Jo Moore was 4 years old when her father left home to train for World War II. She wrote him letters regularly during the war and greeted him at the Villisca depot with a homecoming hug. She married Jim Watt and they had a daughter and two sons. After battling multiple sclerosis for several years, she died in a car crash in 1984. "She had a smile that was as big as Texas," said Carolyn Mitchell Olson of Red Oak, a high school classmate who was the maid of honor at her wedding. "Nancy was always bubbly."

Michael Croxdale was the son of Ed and Eva Croxdale. His mother was Dorothy Moore's sister. He was 21/2 years old when his uncle returned from the war, and he ran forward with his cousin and aunt, joining the Moores in the historic photo. As a youth and an adult, he was known for his flamboyance. "If it was a crazy fad, he was one of the first to do it," said classmate Sandy Penwell Taylor. Like his father, Mike became a doctor and served in the Army. He was decorated for valor in Vietnam. He died of cancer in 1993. The Son Who Came Later Robert R. Moore Jr. wasn't in the homecoming photo. "I was probably born exactly nine months after that picture," he said recently, laughing. Closer examination of the dates showed the interval to be a couple of years. He grew up in Villisca, served in the Army in Vietnam and was seriously injured. He still can't fully bend his left leg. He is chief operating officer of Advanced PET Imaging, a medical technology company dealing with diagnosis of heart ailments. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Lynn.

The Lives and Times of a Midlands Family

1905 - Feb. 18, Robert Ross Moore born in Villisca, Iowa.

1910 - Census counts Villisca population at 2,039. Montgomery County has 1,917 farms, averaging 139 acres.

1911 - March 16, Dorothy Dee Goldsberry born in Shelby, Iowa.

1912 -June 10, Joseph Moore, Bob Moore's uncle, and his family are slain, along with two visiting children, in Villisca ax murders.

1920 - Villisca population is 2,111. Montgomery County has 1,793 farms, averaging 144 acres.

1922 - July 7, Bob Moore joins Company F of the Iowa National Guard.

1923 - Moore graduates from Villisca High School.

1929 - Dorothy Goldsberry graduates from Villisca High School. Oct. 29, stock market collapse starts Great Depression.

1930 - July 1, Moore marries Ruby Taylor in Omaha. Villisca population is 2,032. Montgomery County has 1,615 farms, averaging 165 acres.

1933 - Adolf Hitler appointed German chancellor. July 24, Ruby Moore granted a divorce from Bob Moore.

1934 - Feb. 10, Moore marries Dorothy Goldsberry in Maryville, Mo.

1935 - Feb. 1, Ross Moore, father of Bob Moore, dies. April, Bob and his brother Bill take over the family drugstore.

1936 - Aug. 23, Dorothy Moore gives birth to Nancy Jo in Villisca.

1939 - Sept. 1, Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.

1940 - Dec. 18, Michael Bruce Croxdale is born to Ed and Eva Croxdale (Dorothy Moore's sister). Villisca population is 2,011. Montgomery County has 1,633 farms, averaging 163 acres.

1941 - Feb. 10, Company F mobilized. March 2, Company F leaves Villisca for training at Camp Claiborne. Dec. 7, Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

1942 - Nov. 8, Bob Moore and other U.S. troops land in Algeria.

1943 - Feb. 16, Moore leads his surrounded troops in escape past German lines. April 9, Moore injured in bomb blast. July 15, Moore returns to Villisca and is welcomed by his family at the train depot.

1944 - May 1, Earle "Buddy" Bunker of World-Herald wins Pulitzer Prize for picture of Moore hugging daughter Nancy on his return to Villisca. June 6, Allies invade Normandy.

1945 - May 7, Germany surrenders. Aug. 6, U.S. drops first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Sept. 3, Robert R. Moore Jr. born in Fort Benning, Ga.

1946 - March 19, Bob Moore leaves active duty. May 21, Bob and Dorothy Moore buy Villisca house for $4,500.

1950 - June 27, U.S. sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam. Villisca population is 1,838. Montgomery County has 1,516 farms, averaging 174 acres.

1955 - Nancy Moore graduates from Villisca High School. Aug. 19, Nancy marries Jim Watt.

1957 - April 24, Nancy Watt gives birth to daughter, Debra Jo, in Corning, Iowa.

1958 - May 20, Nancy Watt gives birth to son Patrick Lester in Corning. Michael Croxdale graduates from Villisca High School, starts college at University of Colorado.

1959 - Sept. 23, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits Roswell Garst farm in Coon Rapids, Iowa. Montgomery County has 1,269 farms, averaging 210 acres.

1960 - Villisca population is 1,690.

1961 - Dec. 8, Judith Croxdale, Michael's wife, gives birth to a son, Leyton, in Iowa City.

1962 - March 19, Bob Dylan releases his first album, immediately becoming a favorite of Michael Croxdale. Croxdale, who transferred after his junior year, graduates from University of Iowa. July 31, Moore brothers close drugstore. Aug. 10, Moore brothers file for bankruptcy, listing debts of $6,068.91 and assets of $4,398.87.

1963 - Nov. 22, President John F. Kennedy assassinated. Nov. 27, Moore simultaneously promoted to brigadier general and retires from National Guard.

1965 - May 16, Nancy Watt gives birth to son Michael Robert in Omaha.

1966 - January, Bobby Moore joins Army. March 29, Bob and Dorothy Moore sell their Villisca home for $8,000 and move to Red Oak. Michael Croxdale graduates from University of Iowa Medical School.

1967 - July 1, Croxdale receives medical license No. 17465 from the Iowa Board of Medical Examiners. Croxdale joins Army, goes to Vietnam.

1968 - April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. June 5, Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.

1969 -Montgomery County has 984 farms, averaging 264 acres.

1970 -Villisca population is 1,402.

1971 -Dec. 31, Bobby Moore receives medical discharge from Army.