After 80 years, US ARmy Sergeant John Owen Herrick is back home.
Herrick’s remains were returned to Emporia from Omaha, Nebraska Friday morning. Herrick’s remains were escorted by local law enforcement to Robert’s-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home where he will remain until Veterans Day when he will be laid to rest during a repatration ceremony at Maplewood Memorial Lawn Cemetery.
Waiting for Herrick’s arrival at Roberts-Blue Friday was his niece Kathleen Lamb. Lamb spoke with KVOE News ahead of Herrick’s arrival and says Friday was a day of excitement for her and her family.
She says the only thing that could have made it better would have been for her father, the brother of Sgt. Herrick who passed back in the 1970s, to be there to witness it.
Herrick, age 19, was assigned to Company B, 149th Engineer Combat Battalion in the European Theater and was killed during the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Herrick was among around 200 soldiers aboard Landing Craft Infantry 92 when it hit an underwater mine and was struck by enemy artillery shells.
While listed as being from Emporia, Herrick attended high school in Bushong and was one of four soldiers from the town killed during the Omaha Beach invasion. The repatriation services will take place on Veterans Day, which coincidentally would have been his 100th birthday, at 2:30 pm.
Herrick’s repatriation process follows similar proceedings for US Marine Private Glenn White of Emporia, who was killed in the Pacific Theater in 1943. White was repatriated to Emporia in 2021.
Click here for a YouTube Short of Herrick’s return to Emporia.
