Clarence P. Mashek was a
member of Company H, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment during
WW-II.
As a Pfc he jumped into Normandy on the morning of June 6, 1944
... D-Day. He was wounded on July 4th.
He recuperated from his wound and on September 17, 1944 he was
with the regiment when they jumped into the area of Nijmegen,
Holland. He was wounded again just four days later.
Before both of these combat periods, the 508th had been
stationed in Nottingham, England. While there, Clarence met a
young lady named Joan Smith
In the summer of 1945, following the end of the war, he returned
to Nottingham and married Joan to bring her to his home state of
South Dakota.
Things didn't go well for the couple and after a few years Joan
returned to Nottingham. Unfortunately, in 1976 she was brutally
murdered. The case was never solved. Read
newspaper
account
That marriage produced no children but Clarence apparently later
married a woman named Myrna. The presence of small toys at the
rear of the stone implies visits by grandchildren.
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