2014 HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com November 26, 2014 11
The second semester at U of I was too far
along for the solider to get back in. But,
there was another turn in store for him.
“You know life sometimes gives you
funny cards and you have to play them
how they come up on the table. When
I came home in ’46, I found my father
critically ill,” he said. The family business
had been languishing due to his father’s
illness. There was much to be done and the
newly returned soldier set about saving his
father’s business to take care of the family.
His father died four years later.
“The bottom line is, I went to work. You
go to work when you have to go to work.”
Many of you know by now exactly who
this soldier from Lincoln was is that spent
that most momentous Christmas in Paris
1945.
Story by Jan Youngquist
For the rest of his story go to Page 54
the retelling, this soldier an expert
communicator still found it difficult to
adequately express the experience.
Struggling for words, he said, “It was kind
of a hard to beat. You couldn’t top this.”
He also gives great credit to the
entertainers that work their holidays to
raise moral support for the troops. Bob
Hope was the greatest of these. Jack
Benny was a real gentleman when the
soldier actually met him on the street
during a chance encounter, they spoke and
shook hands and Benny thanked him.
In February 1946, three years to the month,
the soldier returned to civilian life.
