The Treasure Chest: World War II Casualty’s Purple Heart and Artifacts Discovered, Given to Family

At left, Mary Ann Niemi is overcome with emotion at the sight of artifacts from the late Leo Weber. Above Artifacts that were returned included Weber’s Purple Heart medal that he was awarded posthumously, and his service photo.

This kind of story belongs in Hollywood.

Many Sea Isle City residents now know of the Purple Heart medal and artifacts from late World War II veteran Leo Weber being returned to his family June 10.

It’s a well-honed victory for human nature, anchored by a parade of heroes, generous deeds, and an outpouring of emotion.

The events marking Weber’s life cut across VFW Post 1963 in Sea Isle City, the family of Mary Ann Niemi in Springfield, Pa., local residents Joe and Jean O’Connor, and the home at 75th Street and Pleasure Avenue that has been in the Weber family for 50 years.

This process brought a family member to life nearly 80 years after his death for descendants who had never met him.

That alone was monumental.

But this saga also saved a final, humanitarian twist for last: an unsolicited $2,500 donation from the family to VFW Post 1963, where Leo Weber’s artifacts had been returned. In discussing the gesture, Niemi tearfully described her gratitude for those who found Leo’s personal possessions.

The letter Leo Weber’s parents received from President Franklin D. Roosevelt informing them of his tragic death.

“I told Mary Ann that no donation was necessary, but it is greatly appreciated and every penny will go toward veterans in need,” says Mark Lloyd, the outgoing VFW commander who played a central role in this process.

Post 1963 contributes generously to veteran services and programs that benefit veteran homes. A few veterans who know nothing of this event will be helped by it.

“All in all, this is one fantastic story,” Lloyd says.

Here is how it evolved.

VFW community tracks down owners: The O’Connors, who have a vacation home on Pleasure Avenue, noticed a cedar chest that had been tossed outside during a spring cleanup.

Joe saw nothing inside, but noticed that the inside and outside dimensions didn’t match. Somehow, he found a secret compartment containing a treasure trove of documents. They included the Purple Heart medal and a letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Leo Weber’s parents, notifying them of the tragic death of 19-year-old Leo in 1944.

The O’Connors gathered the documents, put them in a bag and left the chest near the dumpster. That move became fortuitous, because Joe O’Connor noticed the chest was gone one day later.

He brought the artifacts to Lloyd, who vowed to find the owners.

The articles enabled Lloyd, a Purple Heart recipient during the Vietnam War, to appreciate this 19-year-old private who had been killed when his plane was shot down in 1944 in northern Africa. The documents revealed the journey of a young man gaining letters of recommendation to join the Army. Sadly, less than two months after this unfolded, Leo Weber was gone.

“They told a story of this charismatic young man who wanted to serve his country,” Lloyd notes. “I really started to feel like I was getting to know him. Here was a good-looking kid, he has all these black-and-white photos signed by girls, saying things like ‘Leo, how do you like my haircut?’

“All I could think of was how great a young man he was. I am looking at these documents, seeing how he wanted to fly, and I’d say, ‘OK, Leo, I get that.’ I am No. 2 of six kids and want to a Catholic high school. He went to a Catholic high school.

“We had so many similarities, right down to the Purple Heart. I began thinking this was the kind of person I would have hung out with as a teenager.”

Weber also prompted Lloyd to savor his own family lineage.

That includes a grandfather, Junius Orem Lloyd, who served in World Wars I and II, a father, James Lloyd, who served in World War II, Lloyd’s own Vietnam War experience and an explosion that damaged one of his legs.

Artifacts from Leo’s footlocker returned to his family pictures, a watch, a bible, and rosary beads he purchased in France .

Lloyd remembered his father being drafted in 1943, not long before 19-year-old Weber was trying to finagle his way into the service.

Roughly a century of vantage points converged on this process.

It emboldened Lloyd to find the owners of the artifacts. Several people helped, and with the aid of a mobile-connected age, the rightful owners of the documents were found.

It turns out that the treasure trove had been in their home all along, perhaps 50 years, and had nearly been discarded by mistake.

Without the timely help of a neighbor and a group outreach, they may have lost the documents without ever knowing they had had them.

But this was a Hollywood story, in which everything breaks right.

When Lloyd arranged to present the documents, it was a gratifying last deed as the VFW commander.

One week later, he relinquished the post to new commander Joe McLenaghan.

“It is very nice to go out with this kind of feeling,” Lloyd notes. “What a swan song.”

A pocket knife, a coin and a medal that were recovered with Weber’s body.

Lloyd informs Weber’s niece: Mary Ann Niemi was in Springfield, Pa., when a friend helping Lloyd locate Weber’s family told her she was wanted in Sea Isle City.

“I said, ‘What did I do now?” she laughs.

She then found out what had been discovered here.

“When Mark told me about this, we cried together,” she says. “I never met my Uncle Leo, I just heard that he was this handsome young man and a great kid who wanted to serve his country.

“He was too young to enlist. He used my grandfather’s signature to get in at that time. When he graduated high school, he wanted to serve his country, just like his two brothers. My Uncle Jimmy was in the Navy. My father Henry Weber was in the Battle of the Bulge. My Uncle Leo was with Airborne.

“He volunteered. My grandfather did not want him to go. He had three sons serving during the war, he was afraid of what would happen.”

Her grandfather was sadly prophetic.

“The military literally knocked on the door and said that they had some bad news,” she recalls. “They told my grandmother [Mary Weber] that her son had been killed in action and she just collapsed. She actually had a heart attack right there. She recovered from that heart attack but was never the same.”

Mary Ann’s husband thought the ceremony would be too emotional to attend: Eighty-five-year-old Ronald Niemi, Mary Ann’s husband of 54 years, served in the Air Force during the 1960s. He told Mary Ann she had no idea about the magnitude of the repatriation ceremony in Sea Isle City. But a man who undoubtedly saw much in the service of his country thought this would be too tough to watch.

It underscores how service people rarely discuss any wartime experience and that certain memories are too painful. Mary Ann says that when her father Henry came home from the war, for instance, he buried his gun in a wall in the house. He didn’t talk about the war.

She understood where Ronald was coming from.

“He said, ‘If I go, I am going to break down and cry,’ which I understand,” she says. “He said, ‘You go and honor Leo.’”

Mary Ann attended the ceremony at VFW Post 1963 with her daughters Carrie Niemi and Stephanie Beehler. She received a standing ovation upon entering.

Members of Leo’s family with the couple who found the trunk. From left: Jean & Joe O’Connor, Stephanie Beehler (Mary Ann’s Daughter), and Mary Ann Niemi.

“It was so emotional and overwhelming for me,” she says. “I am so proud of my Uncle Leo. He just loved our country. People like him are why we all have grandchildren.

“They were willing to give their lives up, for us. That’s what people need to understand about why we are such a great nation.”

Mary Ann has been quite a battler herself: She survived the emotional trauma of a 15-year-old brother being killed on a motorcycle and the loss of her mother at age 48 with a bad heart.

Her father died of leukemia at age 48, one day after Mary Ann and Ronald got married. During what was supposed to be their honeymoon, they instead buried her father. The couple never got that honeymoon.

Mary Ann survived a massive heart attack in 2002 and carries on today with a pacemaker, at age 75.

“I have no regrets about anything and I am grateful for everything,” she says. “I am surrounded by people who love me.”

Mary Ann also had a career as a histology technologist for Penn Medicine. The HTs play a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases by turning tissue samples into microscopic slides.

The house connection: Leo Weber was tracking several people during the war. One of them was a private named Joe Harford, who eventually married Anna May Weber, Leo’s sister.

That became one of his wisest decisions, on many fronts.

Mary Ann laughs recalling her aunt, whom she cared for the last 15 years of her life.

“Anna May purchased this lot in Sea Isle City in 1973 for $5,000 and he told her she was wasting her money, he wanted no part of paying taxes on sand, ” Niemi says. “Anna May did that, however, and kept up the taxes. Several years later, Joe said he wished they still had the property, and they still did.

“Well, Anna May then builds this nice home right on the beach with this beautiful view of Avalon and of Atlantic City. She lived in part of it and let a group of nuns live rent-free in the other part of it.

“I think it is worth $2 million now,” she laughs. “Joe wanted no part of it.”

It was Anna May who also brought the artifacts here from Pennsylvania. They were in the garage, unbeknownst to all, for nearly 50 years.

Who knew that Uncle Leo was there in spirit all along?

Mary Ann, one of the owners of the Sea Isle property, rents out the home during most of the summer and visits throughout the year.

The discovery of these artifacts is the emotional equivalent of finding oil on one’s property. To the Niemi family, they are priceless.

And in Sea Isle City, a tight-knit community that rallies around one another, it’s a Hollywood ending.