Wendell A. Nye's combat death was part of a double tragedy

WESTMINSTER – Arthur and Mildred Nye were well-known storekeepers in the center of Westminster from the 1920s through the '40s.

Arthur was a grocery clerk and part owner of the Millers Brothers Store at 121 Main St. in the 1920s. At the time they were bringing up their only child, son Wendell, who was a frequent presence around the store.

The experience of being around retail from a young age must have been instrumental in Wendell’s choice of career as he attended school for business and would go on to run his own stores prior to entering the service.

Sadly, the year 1944 would be a doubly tragic time for the Nye family who would suffer a pair of devastating losses in less than one month’s time that summer.

This is the continuation of the series Remembering Local World War II Heroes.

Mark Landry, the veteran’s graves officer as well as a member of the town’s veteran’s committee for the Westminster Historical Society, provided a good deal of information to help complete this column, as well as each on soldiers from Westminster.

More: Paul A. Ilves was awarded a Silver Star for heroics less than three weeks before his death

Pvt. Wendell A. Nye (1912-1944)

Wendell Allen Knight was born in Westminster on March 26, 1912, the only child of Arthur Wendell and Mildred L. (Allen) Nye. The family lived at 6 Academy Hill Road in the center of town and worked at Millers Brothers Store on Main Street.

Wendell graduated from Fitchburg High School in 1930 and attended the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University in Boston from which he graduated in 1935. Two years later, at the age of 25, Wendell married Madeline E. Butler on June 9, 1937, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In 1939, Wendell’s parents purchased the general store at 104 Main St. and moved upstairs to the apartment in the building. At the same time, Wendell and Madeline moved to Rochester, New York where he became assistant manager at the popular W.T. Grant’s Five-and-Ten-Cent store.

More: Westminster's Edmund O. Nelson was killed in France by a German sniper

At the time of his military draft registration, Wendell was living in Elmira, New York, and working at the W.T. Grant store there. He enlisted into the U.S. service on Aug. 11, 1943 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

However, while on a three-week furlough before entering the service, Wendell and Madeline visited his parents in Westminster that September. Five months later, their daughter Patricia Louise was born on February 14, 1944.

Wendell would go on to serve in the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry “Indianhead” Division in the Army as a private. He landed in England on Aug. 7, 1944 and the division was later sent to France.

Nye served in 2nd Infantry Division

In late August, the 2nd Infantry was sent to the city of Brest in Southern France in an attempt to capture it from German forces.

Sadly, while Wendell was serving in France, his father Arthur was stricken ill and died at the age of 63. This put tremendous pressure on his wife Mildred who not only had to run the store in town by herself, but her sadness was further exacerbated by the uncertainty of her only son fighting on the other side of the world.

Less than a month later, Private Wendell A. Nye was killed in action in France on September 1, 1944 at the age of 32.

He was buried in the Brittany American Cemetery in Normandy, France. Services were also held in his hometown of Westminster from the First Congregational Church.

Brokenhearted by the death of her husband and only child, Mildred died five years later in 1949.

Pvt. Nye’s daughter Patricia, who was 6 months old at the time of her father’s death, married Charles Maynard in Wakefield, Massachusetts in 1967. Nye's widow never remarried and lived to the age of 87 before her death in Wilbraham in 1998.

The intersection of Ellis and Knower roads, near the entrance to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Westminster where his parents are both buried, is named in honor of Wendell Nye. His name is also inscribed on a memorial of the Business Administration alumni at Northeastern University.

Comments and suggestions for Remembering Local World War 2 Heroes can be sent to Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing to Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Road, Sandwich, MA 02563.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Wendell Nye of Westminster was KIA in France, WWII 2nd Infantry