ww2letterproject

In August of 1945, the family learned that Abe had been captured in France by the Germans and was a prisoner of war.

Abe was moved from France by truck and rail to a POW camp in eastern Germany near the Polish border. Advancing on Germany from the east, the Russian army freed him and other Allied prisoners in January 1945. In an epic journey covering nearly 1000 miles, Abe travelled mostly on foot to Warsaw, Poland and then to Odessa, Russia. From there he was shipped to Naples, Italy, (about 50 miles from where his brother was killed) and then home to the US. Abe was released from the service in 1945.

May and Eva continued in the WAC. May spent the war Stateside, but Eva became a 1st Sergeant and was transferred to Europe; she was stationed in Paris on VE day.  Later Eva got a leave and traveled to Italy to the place where Bill’s body was interred. May and Eva were released from the WAC in 1945.

With Bill’s death insurance benefits ($10,000), Anna purchased a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Eaton.

Ruth lost her job as a factory worker when the war ended, one of the many women replaced by GIs returning home.

In 1947 the US Government gave Anna the choice of burying Bill in a military cemetery in southern Italy or to bring him home.  In the fall of 1948, Bill returned home by way of New York City. He arrived at the Eaton train station accompanied by an honor guard.

A memorial service was held on November 26, 1948, and he was buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Eaton.

Val “Grandpa” Wing died in 1949.

William Banis’s health continued to decline, and he died in 1954 at the age of 69.

Abe and Velma and their children began their post-war life near Richmond, Indiana (about 15 miles west of Eaton). Shortly after, they moved to Texas where the family would grow to seven children. Albert died in San Antonio in 2000.

As for the Girls…

Eva was married in 1946 and had three sons and two daughters. She spent many years in southern California but returned to Eaton, Ohio, where she died in 2010.

May married in 1948, divorced and remarried in 1953. She was the mother to five children and spent most of her adult life near San Antonio, Texas. She died in 2014.

Ruth married William in 1946 and had two children. Ruth and her husband, with the guidance of her father, would build a house near Eaton, Ohio. A few years later she and the family moved to Dayton, Ohio. Ruth, like her mother Anna, liked to draw and sketch. In the 1980s, while tending to a progressively sick husband, Ruth studied painting and became a respected local artist.

…and the Kids…

As Victor Banis remarks, “The youngest, Pat, was a monster as a child, which he would tell you himself, if he were here. In retrospect it is fortunate he was able to run as fast as he could, since had I been able to catch him, he would probably not have lived to become the terrific man he is today.” Pat’s running ability earned him letters in high school track and football. He broke the state high school high jump record, despite being over six feet tall. He also played on one of Eaton High School’s finest football teams, which went undefeated in 1959, and in his senior year, he was co-captain of the team.
author’s note: I attended some of Pat’s football games, and always his most adoring and loudest fan was my grandmother, Anna.

“Our older brother, Dick, was a wild and rebellious teenager. He twice went to reform school. One might have expected such experiences to make a hardened career criminal of him. In fact, he settled down as a young man, married, raised a family, and became a farmer – not one of the rich agribusiness sort, just a hard working man of the earth.” On the evening of October 21, 1964, Dick’s wife became concerned that it was late and he had not returned from working the fields. She contacted Anna, who drove to the area where she expected Dick to be working. Armed with a flashlight, Anna walked across fields and climbed fences until she spotted his tractor. She found Dick.

He had died after becoming entangled in the equipment while trying to repair it. Anna walked back across the fields and reported his death to the local authorities. “When he died in the sixties his funeral procession, I was told at the time, was the longest that had ever been seen in our town. He had earned the respect of all who knew him: family and neighbors.

“My sister, Fanny, married right out of high school, as girls often did in those days, in such towns. She ran the office for her husband’s plumbing business and raised six children, and when the children were old enough to take care of themselves and help out in the office, she went to college, at age 33. She graduated cum laude, certainly by far the oldest member of her graduating class, and went on to earn her Ph.D. Until her retirement a few years ago, she was a respected member of the education community.” In early 1993, Fanny became a member of the Eaton city council and eventually served as Mayor from 1995-1997. In 2005-2006, as the city’s bicentennial approached, Fanny contributed dozens of articles about Eaton’s history to the local newspaper, the Register Herald.

“Our brother, Sam, was a high school dropout. He earned his GED in the Marine Corps, and while raising his family, worked his way through law school. He became a highly successful attorney and, in time, a judge.

“Ann became an executive with an insurance firm.” She married soon after graduating from high school and moved to northern Ohio where she raised five children.

Victor is a critically acclaimed author of more than 160 published novels as well as numerous non-fiction and shorter works, over a career spanning nearly half a century. (“the master’s touch in storytelling,”–Publishers Weekly) He is often associated with the first wave of west coast gay writing, and or his contributions has been called “the godfather of modern popular gay fiction.” A longtime Californian, he now lives and continues to write in West Virginia’s beautiful Blue Ridge.

…and Anna.

After the death of her husband, Anna lived alone in Eaton. As she grew older and her health failed, Anna resided with several of her children. Near the end it was Abe and Velma and their family who lovingly cared for her. She died in San Antonio in 1984, a few weeks after her 85th birthday.

author’s note: I knew her as Grandma, a wonderful person, funny and quick to laugh but also with a temper. I spent many holidays at Grandma’s house and, as a young boy, would on occasion stay with her for several days during the summer. She took me fishing and we played cards. If she lost, she usually claimed that someone had been cheating. I remember her fondly.

When Anna got her gold star after Bill’s death, it came with a poem, which reads, in part:

“Both he and I are waiting
Until we two shall meet”

Anna is buried in Eaton, Ohio, in the beautiful and peaceful Mound Hill Union Cemetery. She rests next to her husband, William and a few feet away from her oldest boy, Bill.

 

May they rest in peace and may we never forget them.

 

post post script

I was determined to launch this site on Memorial Day of 2015. A few days before the launch, my mother Ruth Banis Nance became ill and suddenly passed away. She was my main source of material for this story.

Never one to look back, she patiently spent hours talking with me about family history. When I first read Bill’s letters, they spoke to me so clearly. It was a son talking with a mother he obviously adored.

I adored Ruth Nance. She was a wonderful mother and a best friend. Thanks, Mom, for helping me with this story. I miss you so much.