Two cemeteries, half a world apart ....

These two tombstones are located half a world apart --- a cross marking John A. Strouse's grave in Cambridge American Cemetery on the northwest outskirts of Cambridge, England, and the substantial granite marker at the grave of his mother, Pearl (Gilbert) Strouse, in LaGrange Cemetery northeast of Russell in Lucas County, Iowa. The grave of the grandmother who helped to raise John, Sarah (Thompson) Gilbert, also is located at LaGrange.

The accident that killed John occurred during April of 1942 near Belfast, Northern Ireland, and his remains were buried first in Belfast City Cemetery. After World War II ended, his remains and those of other U.S. servicemen whose graves had been scattered around the United Kingdom were gathered and reinterred at the Cambridge American Cemetery.

Here's the story, published on the front page of The Chariton Herald-Patriot of April 16, 1942 --- the same date he was buried in Belfast --- reporting his death:

+++

Mrs. Sarah Gilbert, of Chariton, received word Wednesday of the death of her grandson, Private John A. Strouse, 25, of St. Paul, Minn., which occurred in Ireland. He was accidentally shot on Monday, April 13, the day he completed his first year's service with the army.

It was the second such instance among the United States forces in Ulster, a bullet from the rifle which a buddy was cleaning killed Strouse in a hut at a base somewhere in northern Ireland.

Strouse, formerly on the advertising staff of the St. Paul Dispatch, was unit correspondent on the army newspaper "Stars and Stripes" which is resuming publication in Ireland.

Strouse grew to young manhood in Chariton, and was reared by his grandmother, Mrs. Gilbert, his mother having died. He was a son of Walter Strouse, of St. Paul, Minn., who with his wife expects to come to chariton within the next few days.

+++

That last paragraph is not exactly accurate. Although Sarah played a major role in her grandson's upbringing and he spent a good deal of time in Lucas County as a child, he did not "grow to young manhood" in Chariton. 

John's parents were Walter J. Strouse, 30, an insurance agent headquartered in St. Paul, and Pearl (Gilbert) Strouse, 28, who were married on Sept. 12, 1916, at her mother's home on a farm near LaGrange. John came along three months later, on Dec. 14, 1916, in St. Paul.

Pearl was diagnosed with cancer soon after John's birth and battled it for nearly two years,  moving temporarily with Walter and John to Lucas County so  that Sarah and other family members could help nurse Pearl and care for the infant.

Pearl died on Feb. 14, 1919, while receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and her remains were brought home to Lucas County for burial. John remained with his grandmother after his father returned to his home office in St. Paul.

Walter remarried after a year or two and John then rejoined his father and stepmother, first in St. Paul, then in New York after a transfer, then back in St. Paul, as he grew up. He usually spent summers with his grandmother, however, and the relationship uniting Sarah, John and Walter remained a loving one.

So when John was killed during 1942, it must have seemed to Sarah almost as if she'd lost a son. She died three years later, on June 27, 1945, at the age of 87, and was buried near her husband and daughter at LaGrange.