People: Jun. 16, 1961

On the 17th anniversary of its D-day liberation from the Nazis, the Norman village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise had a distinguished visitor: U.S. Ambassador to France James Gavin, better known locally as deputy commander of Matt Ridgway's hard-nosed 82nd Airborne Division, which liberated the little town of 1,261 to screen the Allied beachhead during the Normandy landings of 1944. Said the ambassador as he clambered out of his official Cadillac last week for a nostalgic slog toward the sea: "I wouldn't have recognized anything in a car. Last time I used this road, I was...

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