Rostraver residents recalls brothers who died in WWII

Don and Marilyn Williams of Rostraver Township have vivid memories of a trip to Europe in 1998. It was one that brought a poignant and dramatic reminder of home.

"We went to London as part of the tour and decided to visit St. Paul's Cathedral," Marilyn Williams recalled. "The back of the church had been damaged by a German bomb during World War II and the tour guide directed us there. It was a very moving experience to be in an area that is such a significant part of world history."

Prominently displayed in a plexiglass-covered case at the bombing site was a book dedicated to all American soldiers who gave their lives fighting "in defense of England" during World War II.

"The guide explained that a page is turned every day to show a new list of American soldiers," Marilyn Williams said. "As chance would have it, we arrived just as they were preparing to turn the page. What we saw gave us goose bumps."

They saw the names of twin brothers Pfc. Glenn Elvin Lowry and Pfc. Jack Nevin Lowry, who were among the nearly 800 American soldiers killed on Dec. 24, 1944, when the Belgian troopship Leopoldville was torpedoed by the German submarine U-486 while crossing the English Channel to France. The ship was only 5 1/2 miles from its destination of Cherbourg, France.

"It was a very eerie feeling seeing their names," Marilyn Williams said. "You want to talk about irony. I mean, what were the chances that the page with their names would come up while we were there?"

The Lowry twins, 1942 graduates of Rostraver High School who were only 20 years old at the time of the disaster, were among five mid-Monongahela Valley soldiers who lost their lives on the Leopoldville. The others were Staff Sgt. Gregory Jurlina and Pvt. Ralph R. Vernile, both of Donora, and Pfc. Jay W. Taylor of Elizabeth. All were assigned to the 262nd Infantry Regiment of the 66th Infantry Division from Pennsylvania. A total of 72 Pennsylvanians were killed.

The Leopoldville disaster has been chronicled by Allan Andrade, a retired New York City police lieutenant. His initial book, "S.S. Leopoldville Disaster December 24, 1944," was published in 1997 and featured stories from survivors and the memories of families of the soldiers who died in the tragedy.

Andrade, who has an obvious passion for keeping the spirit of those men alive, recently published a picture book set, "Leopoldville" Remembrance for Sacrifice" and "Leopoldville: Remembrance for Valor." Those books contain myriad photos of the Leopoldville victims as well as additional information.

Color illustrations depicting the sinking of the ship were drawn by Richard Rockwell, a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He created the illustrations for Andrade in memory of his best friend and college roommate, Leopoldville victim Wilbur Sloan of New Castle.

The Lowry brothers are featured prominently in "Remembrance for Valor" with 16 pages of family photographs provided by the Williamses, who were executors of the will of the twins' mother, Dorothy E. Montgomery Lowry Wyatt, who died at age 93 on April 13, 1996. She was a resident of Fayette City at the time of her death and the last Gold Star Mother of Brightwell-Daugherty Post 484 of The American Legion in that community..

Andrade has titled the section on the Lowry twins "A Mother's Cherished Memories."

The brothers, Andrade wrote, "are representatives of all the soldiers who died that Christmas Eve of 1944. Fortunately, their mother ... preserved until her death ... an extensive photograph record of her sons as well as various other memorabilia. Her boxes of pictures of her sons could be the family record of any of the 763 soldiers who died that night. The photo tribute to the Lowry twins contained on the following pages is dedicated to all of the soldiers who perished in the Leopoldville disaster defending the freedoms and liberties that today we take for granted."

"Dorothy was a wonderful woman," Marilyn Williams recalled. "In the process of settling her estate, we found so many mementoes of her family, especially Jack and Glenn, neatly preserved in the attic. There were so many pictures of the boys growing up, in the service and with their parents. There were even a couple of very nostalgic shots of them with their dog, first as young boys and later when they were home on leave from the Army."

Mrs. Wyatt's first husband, John Lowry, father of the twins, died in 1948. She later remarried and her second husband, Clyde Wyatt, died in 1979. The twins were the Lowrys' only children.

Dorothy Wyatt's entire estate, which Don Williams described as a "significant endowment," was left to the First Christian Church in Fayette City, where she had been a longtime member. Her home became the church's parsonage and part of the funds was used to construct a multipurpose building at the church.

On Jan. 10, 2000, the church held a special service honoring the Lowry twins and the other victims of the Leopoldville. The program featured a showing of the History Channel's documentary about the disaster and displays of Andrade's first book and newspaper clippings.

The church also donated $5,000 toward construction of a memorial honoring the Leopoldville victims at the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning in Georgia. That monument was dedicated on Nov. 7, 1997.

All of the Lowrys' artifacts associated with the Leopoldville and their military service, including their Purple Hearts and letters, were sent to Andrade. He turned them over to Vincent Cordianni of Waterbury, Conn., one of the survivors of the Leopoldville disaster, and they are now part of the museum at Fort Benning.

Don Williams, 73, who had power of attorney for Dorothy Lowry in her later years, became associated with the Lowry family because his older brother, Kenneth Williams, was a friend of the Lowry twins and graduated from Rostraver High School with them.

In a July 8, 1996, Tribune-Review story by reporter Joe Napsha, Williams said Andrade had tried to contact the twins' survivors by sending a packet of information to Belle Vernon Area High School.

"Because Mrs. Lowry had remarried in 1973 and Wyatt was her new last name, there was no survivor listed in the local phone book," Napsha wrote. "It was not until her death in April (1996), when a secretary spotted the obituary that she contacted (Don) Williams, a retired social studies teacher from Belle Vernon Area High School."

Andrade told Napsha in the 1996 interview that he "stumbled on it (the Leopoldville sinking) quite by accident" while doing research of World War II patriotic advertising. At that point in time, he had tracked down more that 75 people in 26 states who were either survivors, surviving members of a victim's family, or participated in the rescue of the soldiers from the freezing water of the English Channel.

"I am determined that these men (survivors) receive the honor due them before they all pass away," Andrade said in a letter to Rostraver Township officials.

Rostraver Township commissioners proclaimed the July 4, 1996 holiday Leopoldville Remembrance Day in memory and honor of the Lowry twins. Their names also are displayed on the Rostraver War Veterans Memorial at the township administration building near Cedar Creek Park.

Because their bodies were never recovered from the Leopoldville catastrophe, two memorial markers with their names and the message "Lost At Sea" call attention to them at Rehoboth Cemetery.

"The markers are displayed between their parents' graves," Marilyn Williams said. "We visit and place flowers at the graves on Memorial Day and other holidays. It's important that their memories be perpetuated."

Additional information about Andrade's books and the Leopoldville disaster is available at his Web site, www.msnusers.com/ssleopoldsville.

Rostraver man recalls brothers

As a man who served his country with honor for 21 years, Kenneth "Ken" Williams knows well of what he speaks when he talks about the tragedy of war. And it is more significant when the ultimate sacrifice involves friends.

"I think we met for the first time in grade school, perhaps sixth grade," Williams said of twins Jack and Glenn Lowry, who died Dec. 24, 1944, when their ship, the S.S. Leopoldville, sank in the English Channel after being hit by a torpedo from a German submarine.

"They truly were great guys; we had a lot of fun together," Williams, who lives in Fairless Hills, recalled. "There was a big hill along old Route 71, it's now Route 201, in Rostraver Township and we did a lot of skiing there. We also enjoyed sled riding and sleigh riding. You had to be very good to guide the sleigh and Jack and Glenn were just that. They always led the way."

The Lowry brothers and Williams graduated from Rostraver High School on May 29, 1942.

"We more or less went our separate ways after that, although we remained good friends," Williams, 83, said. "I went to work for the coal company in Pricedale and worked there until I entered the Army."

While Williams toiled in the coal industry, the Lowrys took jobs as loaders in the Automatic Finishing Department at the Automatic Finishing Department of the Allenport Works of Pittsburgh Steel Co. They joined the Army Air Corps on Feb. 18, 1943, and trained at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama with the 17th Army Air Force College Training Detachment. They also trained at Camp Wolters in Texas before going to England.

"I knew they had entered the Army several months after I did," Williams said. "They always had an interest in airplanes, even when we were kids, and their training was with the old Piper Cubs. When (the Army) closed the flight program everyone was transferred to the Infantry."

Allan Andrade of Landenberg, a Leopoldville disaster author and historian, said the Lowry twins were among 2,235 members of the 262nd and 264th Regiment of the 66th Army Infantry Division being transported by the Belgian troopship Leopoldville across the English Channel. The ship was less than six miles from its destination of Cherbourg, France, when the torpedo made a direct hit. Although the death toll has often been reported as more than 800, Andrade said a total of 763 soldiers were confirmed dead. The Lowrys, whose bodies were never recovered, were among three sets of brothers who perished in the tragedy.

"I didn't hear about the sinking of the ship or the deaths of Glenn and Jack until more than a month after it happened," Williams said. "I was in France with the 359th Engineers when it occurred and we had already moved into Germany when I got the news. The government, as I understand it, held up official announcement of what happened. Someone wrote to me about it and that's how I found out."

Although he was no stranger to death on the battlefield, Williams said he was shocked by the news that his friends were "gone forever."

"You numbed yourself to (death), because there was so much of it around you," he said. "But I couldn't believe what I read about those guys. It's difficult as hell to lose one friend that way, but having two of them die in the same tragedy ... well, that's hard to accept. It was a shock, we were like brothers. It had been only a couple of years earlier that we were having so much fun."

Williams said the weather may have added to the fate of the Leopoldville soldiers who lost their lives.

"Remember, it was the day before Christmas and the conditions, temperatures in and out of the water, were probably brutal," he said. "We wore those old overcoats -- we called them horse blankets -- in those days. They kept us warm but they were extremely heavy. I'm sure that the coats just soaked up the water and pulled them under. They wouldn't have had a chance."

Williams was discharged from the Army in November 1945 but re-enlisted in March 1947 and then served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He was a military adviser with the 137th Regiment in Vietnam for one year before leaving the military with the rank of staff sergeant when his enlistment was up in 1966.

His return to civilian life included working for a loan company for one year and as a garage mechanic for two years.

"I met a guy at the garage who had the same MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) as I did in the Army," Williams recalled. "He brought his car in for repairs and we got to talking. He said he worked for the Postal Service and suggested I apply for a job with them. I wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to do, but we compared paychecks and I knew I had to give it a try. There was a big difference (in salaries)."

Williams, whose brother and sister-in-law, Don and Marilyn Williams, live in Rostraver, passed the Civil Service examination and went to work for the U.S. Postal Service on Dec. 7. His career there spanned 17 1/2 years before he "retired for good."

Williams and his wife, the former Faye Meikle of Charleroi, have been married for 57 years and are the parents of two sons. .Faye Williams' brother-in-law, the late Harry Clark, was the mayor of North Charleroi Borough for several years.

Returning from a vacation in Florida a few years ago, Williams stopped at Fort Benning in Georgia to view the Leopoldville Memorial honoring the victims of the 1944 tragedy.

"It sent a chill through me when I saw their names on the monument," he said of the Lowry twins. "Jack's name is at the bottom of one row and Glenn is at the top of the next row. But they were together, just as they had been throughout their lives. Like the others who died that night, they were good men who were taken from us way too soon."