80 years after leaving home, soldier to be buried between wife and son he never met
Eighty years after he left Ashland for war, Army Pfc. Sanford Keith Bowen is finally coming home.
He will be interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Shiloh, a village in Richland County, next week between his wife and the son he never got to meet.
"This would be the most happy day of their lives to see this," his granddaughter, Lisa Bowen Simpson, of North Ridgeville, told the Times-Gazette. "My emotions are pretty much all over the place."
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The public may pay their respects for the soldier from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 21 at Denbow-Gasche Funeral Home, 313 Center Street in Ashland.
A funeral service will begin 1 p.m. July 22 in the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel at Ashland University, 456 College Ave. Interment will be immediately after.
'Set to have a great life in Ashland'
Bowen was a 1937 graduate of Ashland High School, his obituary reads.
During high school, he was stage manager for drama productions and business manager for the yearbook.
He attended Ashland College, then Ohio University. He worked at the Hess and Clark Company until he was drafted in 1942.
"He was all set to have a great life in Ashland if he would have returned from the war," Simpson said of her grandpa.
Fortunately for her, the man was in love with the former Virginia "Ginny" Page, so they got married in 1943 so that she could move on base with him.
"They let their spouses come back then," Simpson said. "She ended up getting pregnant with my dad."
Sanford Reed Bowen was born Nov. 8, 1944, just two months before Ashland's hero was killed in action.
'He knew he had a son'
Bowen was 26 when he found himself near Reipertswiller, France, in January of 1945.
"My grandfather was a radio operator," Simpson said. "He really wasn't even supposed to be in combat."
The man's vision was too poor to risk sending him to the battlefield, but good enough for him to be helpful behind the scenes. But after heavy personnel losses, his expertise was needed on the front lines.
The family has confirmation that just before he left for battle, Bowen safely received a black-and-white photo of his son.
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"We know that he knew he had a son," Simpson said.
Reipertswiller, Simpson explained, took place about the same time as The Battle of the Bulge, so it never became very well known. But it was very important.
"They broke through the Nazi line," Simpson said. "The other two U.S. battalions did not follow suit."
Of the 150 who became surrounded, only two made it back safely.
"They found him on a side road trying to escape with a lieutenant," Simpson said. "They found them side by side."
'That was the love of her life'
The government started searching for fallen American soldiers in the area around Reipertswiller in 1947, two years after Bowen's death, according to a news release provided by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency.
They found 37 unidentified sets of American remains, but were not able to identify any of them as Bowen. He was declared non-recoverable on May 8, 1951.
Back in Ashland, Ginny Bowen finally remarried, but she never passed up the opportunity to talk about her hero soldier.
"I think that was the love of her life forever," Simpson said.
Sometime in the 1950s, Ginny finally acknowledged that Keith would never return home, so she got him a tombstone in the family's section of Mount Hope Cemetery in Shiloh.
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As for Simpson, she never got to learn a lot about her grandpa, who she references as Keith.
Her son, Austin Miller of Fort Collins, Colorado, and her younger sister, Lori Reinbolt of Creston, are the man's only living descendants.
Simpson's father — Bowen's only child — passed away four years ago. Simpson said he had left the home when she was only 3, so as a child she never got to hear his perspective about Bowen's status.
"As an adult, I found him," Simpson said. "We reconciled, so he was a part of my life for about 25 years before he passed."
Bowen's identification confirmed
Historians have continued to search for missing soldiers over the decades.
They wrote in a news release that "Unknown X-6083 St. Avold, buried at Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, could be associated with Bowen or four other soldiers."
They disinterred "X-6083" in June of 2021, then took him to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for analysis.
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An anthropological analysis and a mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed the soldier as Ashland's fallen son.
"Bowen's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, along with others still missing from WWII," the news release reads. "A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for."
Once they had the confirmation, they reached out to Bowen's nearest kin, which was then his oldest daughter.
"I almost thought it was a scam," Simpson said.
'They'll all be together'
But the government researchers proved how much they knew and earned her trust. They ended up visiting her house and went through all of the information over a course of four hours.
"It was the real thing," Simpson said. "It's simply incredible."
Among the extensive records the government turned over to Simpson was a binder of letters her grandmother had written to the Army over the years asking for updates on whether anyone had found any leads on Bowen's location. Sadly, each time she was told that he had not yet been found.
Ahead of next week's interment, the family will gather Friday when Bowen's remains are brought to the area. He is supposed to land at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at 6:40 p.m.
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"We're all going to be out on the tarmac to receive the body," Simpson said.
Then he will be taken to the funeral home for a prayer service.
"I am very excited," Simpson said. "I don't know if I can emotionally make it through the whole thing."
Bowen will lie in repose for a week before his service and interment. Then, he will finally be placed between his wife and his son.
"They'll all be together," Simpson said. "I know they're looking down in Heaven rejoicing. I feel very fortunate that I get to be a part of it. We have finally found him. We can put him to rest."
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: 80 years later, soldier to be buried between wife and son he never met
