Almost 80 years after he died, the remains of a World War II soldier will be interred this weekend at the historic Union Miners Cemetery just off Route 66 in Mount Olive, Illinois.
The Springfield State Journal-Register reports Army Sgt. John W. Radanovich, 23, of nearby White City, Illinois, was slain by German forces in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in December 1944.
The burial will be at a family plot at the cemetery Saturday after a visitation and service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Becker & Son Funeral Home in Mount Olive.
More from the newspaper:
A native of White City and a star athlete in high school at Mt. Olive, Radanovich enlisted in the U.S. Army while he was living in Michigan in November 1942. He had moved there to be closer to family members.
Between September 1944 and February 1945, a series of clashes took place over 50 square miles along the German-Belgian border. Radanovich’s rifle platoon was engaged in a fierce counterattack with the Germans on Dec. 1, 1944. According to Radanovich’s obituary, that was the last time he was seen alive.
The Germans never reported Radanovich as a prisoner of war, and because of the protracted battle, Radanovich’s regiment couldn’t do a thorough search of the area.
On Dec. 2, 1945, one year and one day after Radanovich was last seen, the U.S. War Department issued a presumptive finding of death.
A historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined a set of unidentified remains recovered near Grosshau in 1946 possibly belonged to Radanovich. The remains at Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to a DPAA lab for analysis.
Radanovich was identified by the agency through several analyses of DNA evidence.
The soldier’s last sibling, Louise, died in 2020, in Alhambra, Illinois, at the age of 101. Two nephews and a niece are listed as survivors of Radanovich.
Radanovich’s hometown of White City sits two miles west of the Route 66 town of Mount Olive.
White City was incorporated in 1907 as a center for a coal-mining operation, according to a story on Genealogy Trails. Many of the residents were Croatian.
The village, which is straddled by modern-day Interstate 55, once counted more than 500 people during the 1920s, but its population has dwindled to about 200.
Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive remains best known for its Mother Jones Monument, which was erected in 1936 several years after the death of the union firebrand.
Several striking miners killed during a confrontation with mine security guards during the infamous “Battle of Virden” in Virden, Illinois, in 1898 eventually were interred in Mount Olive, and Jones said she wanted to be buried with them when she died.
The forthcoming burial of a long-missing soldier hits close to home. Just a few years ago, a Vietnam fighter pilot was brought home to my Illinois hometown 46 years after he died.
UPDATE 8/13/2023: A St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer captured many images from the visitation and funeral. The State Journal-Register in nearby Springfield interviewed Radanovich’s nephew about his memories.
(Image of the entrance to Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois, via the Mother Jones Museum; image of John Randanovich via Becker & Son Funeral Home)