Resting in peace
Sylvia Branly of Le Grand-Quevilly, France, poses with her husband, Thierry Dubreuil, in July at the grave site of Mike Kubicar Jr. in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. A photograph of Mike’s brother, John Kubicar, and his wife, Shirley, is at the base of the cross.
The grave marker of Mike Kubicar Jr., a technician fifth grade with the U.S. Army’s 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Division
Army TEC 5 Mike Kubicar Jr., who was born in Washington County and killed in action July 21, 1944, during World War II
John and Shirley Kubicar of Richeyville peruse photographs of the cemetery where John’s brother Mike is buried in Normandy. His grave site has been tended for several years by Sylvia Branly of Le Grand-Quevilly, France.
A photocopy of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, that was sent to the Kubicars by Sylvia Branly
FREDERICKTOWN – Seventy-one years after Mike Kubicar Jr. was killed serving his country during World War II, a stranger continues to keep his memory alive.
And for that, his only surviving sibling, John, will be forever grateful.
“We didn’t know if he was buried or not,” John said while poring through countless photos and souvenirs of his brother’s grave site while visiting the Beth-Center Senior Center.
The memorabilia is courtesy of Sylvia Branly of Le Grand-Quevilly, France, who has been tending Mike’s grave site for several years. She began corresponding in July with John and his wife, Shirley, of Richeyville, after she and her husband, Thierry Dubreuil, tracked down Shirley’s niece, Linda Loftin of Philadelphia, through ancestry.com.
“I have a membership with ancestry, and had listed my Aunt Shirley and her husband, John Kubicar, as part of my ancestry tree,” Loftin wrote in an email. “This French couple are part of a community that tends the grave sites of Americans who are buried nearby. Those who tend the graves reach out to Americans who may be related to the deceased soldiers.”
Loftin said she was a bit hesitant to provide the French couple with the elderly Kubicars’ contact information, wary of a possible Internet scam for cash, but did agree to send her aunt any information and photos that Branly would email Loftin.
“I could explain it all, where it rests, where he landed, what I feel when I return to the United States’ cemetery and see all the soldiers who saved us and died for us,” Branly wrote in one of her original emails to Loftin.
Eventually, the Kubicars and Branly exchanged their mailing addresses, and ever since, Branly has faithfully sent photos and other trinkets, including sand from Omaha Beach, which was retrieved not far from where Mike Kubicar is buried in Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the same cemetery where Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who was killed July 12, 1944, is interred.
“Sylvia Branly and her husband, and other members of their community, are indeed special people who bring a sense of closure and peace to American families who lost relatives in France,” Loftin wrote.
John and Shirley Kubicar couldn’t agree more.
“I think it’s extraordinary how she’s kept on with it,” Shirley said.
“It blows my mind,” John added.
John, now 88, was just 15 years old when his brother Mike, the eldest of seven children, including four sons, born to Czechoslovakian immigrants, was sent overseas. Mike served as a technician fifth grade with the U.S. Army’s 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Division.
Mike was killed in action July 21, 1944, when a bomb exploded, throwing him into the side of a tank. His death was witnessed by John Maskovich, one of Mike’s good friends who later visited the Kubicars’ home to explain what happened. In January 1946, Maskovich became John Kubicar’s brother-in-law when he married Mary Ann Kubicar.
“My dad wanted to bring my brother over,” John said, “but we wouldn’t be allowed to open the coffin once it arrived. Me and one of my sisters said, ‘no.’ I cried.”
John recalls that his brother Steve, who fought in the Solomon Islands, South Philippines, before being transferred to Japan during World War II, refused to discuss Mike’s death. Steve died in 2003.
“At night, he would cry,” John said.
Another brother, Joe, fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He died in June 1999 from exposure to Agent Orange.
John did not serve in the military, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
“They wouldn’t take me,” he said. “I tried everything: the Air Force, Navy, Merchant Marines. I had busted eardrums and was underweight.”
John explained that the family lived along the river near Fredericktown, and the broken eardrums were the result of banging stones together and then listening to them echo underwater.
Although John had a copy of Mike’s headstone inscription and interment records, he always wondered how Mike was buried. “I’d like to go over and see it,” he said.
In the meantime, Branly is doing all she can to bring John as close to the cemetery – and Mike’s experiences – as possible. In addition to photos she and her husband have taken of Mike’s burial plot, Branly has sent photocopies of troops at Omaha Beach in June 1944, and outlined Mike’s burial plot in a panoramic view of the cemetery in a brochure.
The Kubicars have sent money to help pay for any expenses Branly has incurred, but she has always returned it. “We would like to do something to show our appreciation, but they won’t take anything,” John said. “They’re doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Through a translator, Branly said, “I am fulfilled and happy to know the family of my soldier.” She refers to herself as Mike’s godmother, and ends each letter, note or postcard to the Kubicars with “I kiss you.”
In an email to Loftin, Branly wrote, “Mike, rest in peace, and in the greatest respect of the most beautiful place of the USA, in France. For me, this is where I feel peace with all men and Mike.”
And now, so, too, does John Kubicar.
“Nobody understands how much it means to me in my heart that they’re taking care of him,” said John, his eyes filling with tears. “You can’t express it.”