By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Mary Ann Niemi broke into tears the moment she entered the VFW Post 1963 building Saturday and was greeted with applause and a standing ovation.
During an emotional ceremony, she was presented with a Purple Heart medal and other personal effects for her uncle, Leo F. Weber, a World War II airman who was killed in combat in 1944 when he was just 19 years old.
Mary Ann Niemi, now 75, never knew her “Uncle Leo,” as she affectionately called him, because he died four years before she was born. But a cache of documents and personal mementoes recovered from a secret compartment in a cedar chest that once belonged to Weber’s sister is giving extraordinary insight into her uncle’s short life.
“He was a hero,” Niemi told the audience at the VFW building in Sea Isle City while speaking of Weber during the ceremony.
“My uncle was one of those who didn’t make it home,” she noted of his death.
VFW Post 1963 Commander Mark Lloyd presented Niemi and her daughters, Carrie Niemi and Stephanie Beehler, with the Purple Heart and other mementoes that will now be cherished family keepsakes. The artifacts include a black and white photo of a smiling Weber dressed in his military uniform.
Lloyd spoke of the heroism of Weber and so many other brave men and women of the U.S. military who have fought and died in war. The Purple Heart is one of the military’s highest decorations and is awarded to U.S. service members who are wounded or killed in combat.
Leo Weber’s brothers, Jim and Harry, also served during World War II and made it home alive. The late Harry Weber was Mary Ann Niemi’s father.
“It’s truly a tremendous commitment by your family to the American way of life,” Lloyd told Niemi of her family’s military service.
The Purple Heart and other personal effects for Leo Weber were displayed on a table at the VFW during the ceremony Saturday. There is a possibility the artifacts may continue to be displayed at the VFW for a while before Niemi’s family takes formal possession, Lloyd said.
The documents include Leo Weber’s birth certificate from Dec. 4, 1924, some of his class records from Mt. Carmel grade school and Southeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia and letters of recommendation for him to enter the military as an airman.
There was also an old black and white photo of Leo’s high school sweetheart, signed, “To Leo, August 1943, Theresa.” It was a love affair tragically cut short by war.
Weber was killed when his plane was shot down over North Africa on Feb. 19, 1944, Lloyd said. His remains were buried in a cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. A letter addressed to Leo Weber’s mother informing her that her son had been killed in action is part of the personal effects.
Recovered from Weber’s body were a French coin, a small pocketknife and a religious medal of the Virgin Mary. Those keepsakes will also be returned to Mary Ann Niemi and her family.
Although Leo Weber and his family were from Philadelphia, they have longtime ties to Sea Isle. The family has owned a home at 7505 Pleasure Ave. in Sea Isle for decades. One of the owners of the Sea Isle house was Mary Ann Niemi’s late aunt, Anna May Harford, who was Leo Weber’s sister.
Harford had kept an old cedar chest at the Sea Isle home. The chest was mistakenly thrown out on the curb by a cleaning service when the house was being tidied up several weeks ago.
Luckily, Joe O’Connor, who has a vacation home on Pleasure Avenue, came upon the chest and opened it. O’Connor discovered a secret compartment where Leo Weber’s Purple Heart and the trove of photos, documents and personal keepsakes had been hidden by Anna May Harford.
“I pushed it, and lo and behold, there were things there,” O’Connor said of the button that opened the secret compartment in the chest.
“As soon as I found the Purple Heart, I knew it was not meant to be thrown away. It was put out by mistake,” he added in an interview.
O’Connor and his wife, Jean, were part of the VFW ceremony to reunite Weber’s Purple Heart with Niemi’s family.
Not quite sure what to do with the Purple Heart and Weber’s personal effects after he first found them, O’Connor turned them over to Lloyd during Sea Isle’s Community Day celebration on May 6.
At that time, Lloyd had never heard of Leo Weber, but he began carefully examining the documents and photos for clues about Weber’s background and family. Lloyd, a Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart himself, felt a personal connection to Weber and was determined to find his family.
Lloyd first spoke publicly about Weber during remarks at Sea Isle’s Memorial Day service. He vowed then that he would find some surviving member of Weber’s family so that the Purple Heart could be returned to them.
“I knew one thing in my heart, that failure was not an option,” Lloyd said.
Later, Lloyd was able to read the obituary for Anna May Harford, Leo Weber’s sister who died in 2015 and formerly lived in Sea Isle. The obituary mentioned that Anna May Harford was survived by two nieces, including Mary Ann Niemi, who lives in Springfield, Pa. He contacted Niemi to let her know about the Purple Heart and other keepsakes.
“During our first call, we both cried,” Lloyd said.
Niemi said in an interview that her aunt never told her about the Purple Heart and other keepsakes for Leo Weber that were tucked away in the cedar chest’s hidden compartment.
She will treasure those mementoes now that they have been returned to her family, she said.
“You made my life complete,” Niemi told the audience while thanking the VFW at the ceremony.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio, who also spoke during the ceremony, said Leo Weber will forever be a part of Sea Isle’s “family.”
“Only in Sea Isle City could something like this happen,” Desiderio said.
