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But after its long wait, Mayenne was afraid it was not ready. August is vacation time in France. "Our ceremony will be much too simple," worried Mayor Lucien de Montigny. "Members of the municipal band will not be on hand to play the American and French anthems. The magistrates are on vacation. We are afraid that Mrs. McRacken will be disappointed."
Maggie McRacken was not disappointed. Last Saturday, on the 17th anniversary of his death, the widow and daughter of Private McRacken were honored at a small, tearful reception in Mayenne's 16th century city hall. They stepped to the center of the old stone bridge, stood silently at the flower-banked monument while an American bugler blew taps, a U.S. Army band played The Star-Spangled Banner and the Marseillaise, and 2,000 villagers watched solemnly.
It was all very simple, and entirely fitting to the memory of the Red Springs farm boy whose wife, proud though she was, could still wonder: "I'll never know what made him run out from behind that tank to save that bridge in the face of certain death."