BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor and Contributing Writer
Feature Photograph courtesy of Julie Harrington
For the granddaughter of a U.S. Army private killed 77 years ago in Belgium, Memorial Day Weekend will be dedicated to attending to her initial effort to bring Pvt. Ivory Disotell back home from Europe to St. Landry Parish for his reburial in a Krotz Springs cemetery.
“Absolutely, I am intending to get started doing that right away,” says granddaughter Julie Harrington, who lives between Melville and Krotz Springs.
Harrington indicates that she was inspired recently by the story of Army Pvt. Hillary Soileau, whose remains were positively identified in 2020 after he was declared killed in action but unidentified for 77 years.
Soileau, who lived in Whiteville when he joined the Army, was reburied with full military honors last Saturday at Washington’s Cedar Hill Cemetery.
“I definitely want to do this. My mother (Geraldine Schexnayder) was six years old when he left and many members of (Disotell’s) family are buried in the First Baptist Cemetery in Krotz Springs. I think it’s time that my grandfather needs to come back and be reburied with the family and his daughter,” Harrington says.
Harrington with assistance from parish military veterans and St. Landry Now, has been provided with information on how to begin the lengthy procedures for the exhumation and reburial of Disotell by first contacting the office of U.S. Fifth District Congresswoman Julia Letlow.
A spokesperson in Letlow’s Office said during a Thursday afternoon St. Landry Now interview that Harrington will first be provided with a privacy release form for her to sign. After that Letlow’s office will forward the necessary information to military officials on Harrington’s behalf, the spokesperson said.
Military records show that Ivory Disotell, assigned to the 87th Infantry Division, was killed somewhere in the Luxembourg area of Belgium on Jan. 3, 1945 as the U.S. Army attempted to halt a final German counteroffensive known as the Battle of The Bulge.
Disotell has been buried at the military cemetery in Luxembourg City since his body was recovered while the 87th Infantry was located in the Libramont-area, located near Bastogne, where the Germans on Dec. 22 surrounded that city and demanded that U.S. forces surrender.
Harrington has a photograph which shows the location of Disotell’s gravestone along with his military ID number.
The 87th Infantry arrived in Europe on Nov. 26, 1944, according to military records and the division spent 134 days in combat. The Division was also responsible for helping recapture five towns in the Librant area from Dec. 27, 1944 until Jan. 11, the records indicate.
Disotell’s military record has not gone unnoticed in Krotz Springs.
Harrington said there is Private Ivory Disotell Street in Krotz Springs that is named after her grandfather.
Ivory Disotell, Harrington thinks, belonged to the Disotell family which at one time operated a store in Krotz Springs.
“It’s really a family story. (Ivory Disotell) left his wife and four young children when he joined the military. There were three girls and a boy in the family that he left behind. The youngest, his only son, was born in 1939 when (Disotell) entered the military,” Harrington said.
Harrington said Disotell’s tragedy and the effects felt by his wife and family were devastating.
“I’ve heard a lot of stories about the day the military vehicle came up the road and told my grandmother than (Disotell) had died. From what I have been told, the neighbors said they heard loud screaming that came from his house. You can imagine the impact that it had on the children including my mother,” Harrington added.
