Heartache in Madera

For The Madera Tribune

Al Barsotti is shown here when he was Mayor of Madera. In 1953, Barsotti gave a returning Korean POW the keys to the city.

---

The young, petite, dark haired woman whose eyes bore the stains of lots of tears stood on the edge of the crowd at the Armory on Yosemite Avenue. Dressed in the white uniform she wore as an employee of a local dry cleaning establishment, she watched the preparations for honoring the returning prisoner of war. Her heart raced with a glimmer of hope. Perhaps he could tell her something. Maybe he knew.

She had taken off from work to try to meet Private First Class Carl Doran, who was coming home after spending three years in a North Korean prisoner of war camp.

The date was Aug. 31, 1953, and the Mayor of Madera along with the City Council and the Madera County Board of Supervisors had all turned out that Monday to honor Private Doran. Music was playing, the colors were paraded, honors bestowed, and the cameras of newsmen photographed the youthful North Fork hero and his happy family.