Glenn Reginald BROWNE Jr. 1925 – 1985
Glenn R. Browne Jr. was born September 15, 1925 in Hoopeston, Illinois the son of Glenn R. and Forrest Murray Browne.
His father was a veterinarian and served in that capacity in The Great War (World War I). He had an older brother Samuel Prescott Browne who was born in 1924.
Located in Vermillion Country, Hoopeston proudly called itself “The Sweet Corn Capital of the World”. Located approximately 100 miles south of Chicago, it was primarily a farming community, but it included several canning companies.
After the war broke out Browne wanted to enlist, but his parents would not allow it until he finished high school. He joined the army in 1943.
First, he was sent to Kansas University in Lawrence and enrolled in the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP) but that program was soon terminated.
Consequently, he did his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia and further training at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi.
He was promoted to Pfc. in September,1944 and then to instrument corporal before being sent to Europe in December 1944.
He entered France through the port of Marseille.
Browne was in the 2nd Battalion of the 254 Infantry in the 63rd Division ”the Blood and Fire Division”.
He ended up as a number one gunner in a heavy machine platoon with duties that included carrying the tripod of a 30-caliber machine gun.
During the Colmar campaign the 63rd was attached to the more well-known 3rd Division, First French Army, VI Army Group.
Browne’s battalion was responsible for the capturing the town of Jebsheim in January,1945.
Later in a short account about his experiences in the war, Browne mentions that he killed a German soldier while on sentry duty in Jebsheim.
The action around Jebsheim earned the 254th a Unit Citation as described in detail here:
Corporal Glenn R. Browne was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his service in the campaign.
On April 25, 1944, as the war was winding down, Browne wrote a long four-page letter to his parents, which may have never been mailed, but it describes an attack on the town of Ensheim near the Siegfried line on March 17, 1944.
It included a map and the details of being under bombardment. A scanned copy of the letter is on the Browne Bio Source page.
Before V-E day, Browne spent time in the hospital with pneumonia and then prepared to be transferred to the Pacific Theatre when the war ended. He was discharged on February 8, 1946.
After returning to Hoopeston after the war, Browne enrolled at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina following in the footsteps of his older brother Sam.
After graduated with a degree in Business Administration at the Citadel, he took a position as the Treasurer at the Milford Canning Company, in nearby Milford, Illinois. Glenn R. Browne Jr. married Clara Jean Burtis of Hoopeston, Illinois on January 7 1951, in Earl Park, Indiana at the home the bride’s brother-in-law and sister.
The couple had three children while residing in Hoopeston.
Neil was born in 1952; Murray was born in 1955 and Kay was born in 1958. Browne took two years of night courses and commuted to Chicago before graduating with a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago.
In 1960, the family built a house on a two-acre plot just outside of the village of Milford and Browne remained at the Milford Canning Company for his entire professional career at the Milford Canning Company before retiring for health reasons in 1984.
Final Years…
Glenn R. Browne was diagnosed with leukemia in the winter of 1983-84. He went into remission in the summer of 1984 and in fall 0f 1984 he retired with full pension. During his stay at the Carle Clinic in Champaign Jean stayed with him every night. In early 1985, Glenn and Jean went with their best friends to Hawaii.
Sadly, soon after they returned from the trip his cancer returned. Another round of chemotherapy weakened him to the point that he died on March 19, 1985 at the age of 59.
The funeral was held at the Brown-Alkire Funeral Home in Hoopeston and Glenn R. Browne was buried in the quiet Maple Grove Cemetery outside of Hoopeston.
Postscript…
In 2023, the only surviving family member Murray Browne wrote and published A Father’s Letters: Connecting Past to Present. In the short book, Browne examines the letters Glenn R. Browne wrote to his parents while he was in the service from basic training until he returned home. Most of these are letters short and written as V-Letters. In the 1970s and 1980s Browne also wrote hundreds of letters of his son Murray beginning while Murray was a young man in college and through the time of his untimely death. Upon retirement, Murray combed through the letters to revisit and to further understand his father.
In 2025, Murray brought two copies of his book to the Memorial Museum of Combat in Colmar and met with the museum curators who encouraged him to put together this exhibit.
For the availability of this book. Visit the author’s website at murray-browne.com
website : https://thebookshopper.typepad.com/blog/glenn-r-browne-jr-1925-1985.html
We sincerely thank Murray Browne for writing and sharing his father’s story so that we can pay tribute to him and his comrades in the 254th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division who participated in the liberation of our region.
We will never forget them!