Purple Heart found among Arkansas' unclaimed property

LITTLE ROCK — A Memphis woman has been given her late father's Purple Heart and other medals from his Army service in Vietnam after they sat forgotten in vaults in Arkansas for more than a decade.

Angela Allen on Friday claimed from the state auditor's office the medals that belonged to her father —Ernest Johnson.

The auditor's office manages thousands of unclaimed safe deposit boxes from banks around the state and tracked Allen down after finding the medals in its vault near the state Capitol.

Allen said she knew her dad was awarded the medals, but had never laid eyes on them and assumed they'd been lost over the years. Her father had stashed them in a safe deposit box at an east Arkansas bank, along with coins he had collected.

Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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