This work was part of the Zumbro River Valley Quilt Project. The family was approached about putting up a quilt square on their barn. They wanted to take it a step further and memorialize Bill, husband, father and grandfather. I know this family and I knew Bill as the "singing postman" in Wabasha as well as the Irish Tenor that sang beautifully at most funerals in town.  I felt privaledged and happy to do it.  I worked in their garage and listened to the stories of him and his crew.  One paticular story really choked me up.  Bill was a tail gunner in that B-17.  It seems he developed this big voice by singing as loud as he could to comfort himself as well as muster up the courage to go up again, not knowing if he would come back down alive.  Bill's in the back row, last one on the right. His wife called him " Hawkeye".