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Harris Billie D.

Monuments

Billie Dowe Harris

 

Name:
Billie D. Harris
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
O-682635
Unit:
355th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group
Date of Death:
1944-07-17
State:
Oklahoma
Cemetery:
Normandy American Cemetery, France
Plot:
D
Row:
27
Grave:
3
Decoration:
Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 10 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Hea
Comments:

1st Lt Billie Harris was married to Peggy Harris on September 22nd, 1943. However, their two-week honeymoon was cut short when Lt Harris was shipped out to fly escort in P-51 Mustangs. He was shot down over the town of Les Ventes on July 17th, 1944. Seeing he was about to crash into the town, the villagers feared for their lives, but Harris managed to divert the plane into the forest, saving lives even in death. The Resistance spirited his body into hiding and held a funeral for him with the town in attendance. His grave was covered knee-deep with flowers. The town held a yearly service for him for the following six decades, even when his body was moved to the Normandy cemetery, as they thought he had no relatives to tend to his grave. Processions are held three times a year and a town square was named after him. As for his widow, a bureaucratic snafu had kept her in the dark. First, he was reported as missing and then, alive. She was subsequently told that he had died, before learning that the remains that had been found were not his. In 2005, Harris wrote to her congressman, Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas. He replied, saying that her husband was "still listed as 'missing in action.'" Finally, her cousin Alton Harvey cracked the mystery when he requested Billie's military records and found out he had been buried in Normandy since 1948. Peggy Harris, who never remarried, now pays annual visits to the town that has kept her husband’s memory alive for over half a century.