British Bride Dies in Arms of Yank

   Joseph Cananzey kneels at
the bedside of his dying
wife. May, in
Nottingham, England.

   Nottingham, England, May 1 --- Mrs. Joseph Cananzey died today in the arms of her husband, former paratrooper from Taunton, Mass., whose neighbors and American Legion buddies bought him a plane ticket to England so he could be with his wife in her last hours.
   "Good-by, darling, we will meet again where there are no partings, she whispered just before she died of tuberculosis. She would have been 20 Saturday.
   She will be buried on her birthday from the little church nearby where they were married shortly before the Normandy invasion.
   When the war was over. Cananzey came back to his bride whose picture he had carried into battle. She was stricken, and he returned to the United States for discharge, thinking his wife would recover sufficiently to join him Sunday he will return to the United States again, by clipper, alone.

[Daily News, New York, NY, 02 May 1946, Thu, Page 164]

[Jumpmaster note: This article, most not carrying the photo, was replicated in many U.S. and UK newspapers as it had great human interest and pathos.]

(courtesy of John Lopes)

Grave marker for Joseph R. Cananzey in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Taunton (Bristol), Massachusetts.

Joseph enlisted in the Army in Providence, RI; on November 4, 1942. When he volunteered for parachutist duty he was assigned to the 508th PIR at Camp Blanding, FL.  Once he reported in he was made a member of Company F. e remained in that Company throughout the war.

Pvt Cananzey jumped into Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  He was wounded three days later and evacuated to the 188th General Hospital in Cirencester (near Gloucester), England.

Later, promoted to Pfc, Joseph was wounded a second time during the Battle of The Bulge.