‘A Book to be Cherished’

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hoback, the letter began, while walking along the beach D-Day plus one, I came upon the Bible, and as any person would do, I picked it up from the sands to keep it from being destroyed. I know that most Bibles have names and addresses within the cover, so I made it my business to thumb through the pages until I came upon the name above. Knowing that you no doubt would want the book returned, I am sending it, knowing that most Bibles are a book to be cherished. The Bible had been a gift to Raymond Hoback from his parents the Christmas of 1938.

Dated July 9, 1944, Cpl. H.W. Crayton’s letter “from somewhere in France” did not reach the Hobacks until the end of the month. Six days after it was written, though, they would be jarred by the news of their other son’s death—not Raymond’s, but that of his brother Bedford. Lucille (Hoback) Boggess (above, left) still remembers the county sheriff delivering the dreaded telegram—that her brother Bedford had been killed in action.

The following day, July 16, while Lucille and her sister were preparing ice cream, the doorbell rang with a second telegram—this time informing the family that Raymond was missing in action. “My mother was overwhelmed, and my father went out to the barn to cry, just to hide his tears from us.”

Both brothers had stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day; but Bedford Hoback’s body was the only one recovered. Raymond, nonetheless, is memorialized through the story of his Bible, which provided the inspiration for the statue Death On Shore (above, center). Today, a plaque outside the Bedford County Courthouse (left) bears the names of Raymond and Bedford Hoback and the 17 other Bedford boys of Company A of the 116th Infantry, 29th Division, who died on D-Day.

— Francesca DiMarco

A Rendezvous Not Kept

It was the first time Bedford-born twin brothers Ray and Roy Stevens would be separated. “I’ll shake your hand when we get to shore,” Roy told Ray in the early morning hours of D-Day, as they said their good-byes and boarded separate landing craft for the assault into France. Roy’s boat sank, however, before ever reaching the beaches of Normandy—something he attributes to saving his life. Four days after being treated at an English hospital, he received word that Ray had been killed. Ray had made it to the beach cliffs, but fell victim to German machinegun fire after reaching them.

After his release from the hospital, Roy returned to duty and went in search of his brother’s grave. “The first grave I came to was Ray’s,” he said. “Many of the other graves in the row belonged to boys in our company. That was one day I will never forget.” A medic later told him the last thing Ray said was “Go on, I’m hit.” Roy recalls that his brother had a premonition he would never return to Bedford.

Today, Roy Stevens and his wife Helen (right) live on a farm the two brothers had purchased before the war.

— Francesca DiMarco