80 years after her father’s death in World War II, she finally found out where and how

Syracuse, Neb — Gerri Eisenhauer’s father, Army Pvt. William Walters was deported to World War II before she was born.

In 1944, her family received his body back and a letter from the U.S. government that simply stated that he had died somewhere in France.

“I always wondered where he died, how he died. It was just a small part of a puzzle piece that was missing from my life,” Eisenhauer told CBS News.

For decades the family had resigned themselves to the fact that they would never know. That is, until a few months ago.

Eisenhauer was at her home in Syracuse, Nebraska, last summer when she received a message from Christophe Ligere, a French historian in the small village of Grez-sur-Loing in central France. The message read in part: “On the occasion of 80th anniversary On the occasion of the liberation of France, we pay tribute to Private William Walters.”

Ligere had found Walters’ name in the diary of an eyewitness to his death and he immediately felt he had to find Walters’ family. Ligere did some research and found the Walters family tree. From there, he found the online obituary of another of Eisenhauer’s relatives, through which he left her this message.

“We were looking for our soldier,” Eisenhauer’s daughter, Jan Moore, told CBS News. “We didn’t know he was also their soldier.”

As Eisenhauer learned from Ligere, American troops began liberating the village of Grez-sur-Loing in August 1944. It was a joyful day, but there was one casualty: As Walters crossed the Loing River into town, his boat capsized and he drowned at age 20.

After Ligere tracked down Walters’ family, he invited them to France to honor their shared hero and the sacrifice he had made here. Eisenhauer and her daughter and son, Jan and Allen, made the trip in September.

Marc Perrot witnessed Walters’ death at the age of 13.

“They went looking for him and found him,” Perrot explained in an interview with France Télévisions. “They did a lot of things to try to revive him, but it didn’t work.”

Perrot met Eisenhauer and showed her where her father was buried before his body was returned to the United States

“They covered it with flowers,” Eisenhauer said of the French. “It’s just unbelievable the care they showed him.”

This week, Eisenhauer returned to her father’s grave in Cass County, Nebraska.

“It was my first time here and I had the answers,” Eisenhauer said.

She says she feels at peace now, and it’s all thanks to the grateful people of France, who, 80 years later, still view the U.S. through the prism of our better angels.

“It’s very important because the young people are coming from the United States to fight for democracy … in France,” Ligere told CBS News.