LOVELAND, ROELIF (31 Aug. 1899-20 Feb. 1978), with CHAS. F. BROWNE and HERMAN FETZER, was one of Cleveland's greatest feature writers, spending 42 years with the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. He was born in Oberlin, Ohio, to Arthur M. and Gertrude (Smith) Loveland. He saw combat in France as a U.S. Marine in WORLD WAR I, and, following attendance at Oberlin College, worked briefly for the CLEVELAND PRESS before joining the Plain Dealer in 1922. During the 1920s and 1930s, Loveland became a specialist in writing "color" pieces, as well as occasional verse. In 1944, he was sent to Europe to cover the coming invasion of France, observing the invasion from a bomber piloted by a fellow Clevelander. His eyewitness account of the D-Day bombardment was later reprinted by Louis Snyder and Richard Morris in their anthology A Treasury of Great Reporting. Subsequently Loveland landed at Normandy to cover Patton's 3d Army in its breakthrough across northern France. He was one of the first correspondents in liberated Paris, and followed the 3d Army to the borders of Germany before being recalled by the Plain Dealer. After covering the CLEVELAND INDIANS in 1948, Loveland was made associate editor, and editorial writer the following year. A year before his retirement in 1965, he was assigned to write a regular column. Following the death of his wife, Mildred, in 1951, whom he married on 23 May 1925, Loveland married Wanda Arndt in 1953. After a long fight against bone cancer, he died of a stroke at UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF CLEVELAND. He was survived by 2 sons, Peter and David, from his first marriage.
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