COLLEGE HILL, Miss. (WTVA) - 68-year-old Jimmie Mae Leatherwood Taylor never knew her father, Jimmie Lee.
He was a U.S. Army private who died almost 70 years ago in World War ll.
She was only about two years old at the time.
Her mother died soon after that.
"All I know is what they told me," said Leatherwood. "And what little that is is that he was in the Army, he was a good soldier. And I never saw him, but I can't say too much for myself."
His name is engraved on the military veterans monument on the square in Pontotoc, but Jimmie Lee Leatherwood has a unique distinction among Pontotoc County veterans.
"According to the papers we have, Mr. Leatherwood was the only African-American killed in the line of duty during World War ll," said Mary Jo Coleman, a secretary for the Pontotoc Historical Society.
Jimmie Lee Leatherwood was a member of the all-black 333rd Field Artillery Battalion that landed on Utah Beach on June 29, 1944, as part of the Normandy Invasion.
As fate would have it, he and fellow soldiers were overrun by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge in December. He and ten other African-American soldiers escaped and found themselves in the small town of Wereth, Belgium.
They hid out in a local farmhouse thanks to a Belgium family who fed them bread and water.
But then something went wrong.
"Due to the fact that there were some people in the village that were loyal to the Nazis, they were found and taken outside of town, tortured, maimed, killed," said Coleman.
"They said that they got killed," said Leatherwood. "They made them strip their clothes and took them off, and they shot them and left them laying there, and a few days later, they said they went out and their skulls were crushed with those grenades. They did a pretty bad job to them."
But the people of Werewith, Belgium, never forgot the eleven soldiers and even erected a monument in their honor that stands to this day.
Meanwhile, Jimmie Lee Leatherwood's daughter has only pictures of his medals, which include a Purple Heart.
She lost it when someone stole here purse years ago.
She lost a replacement medal years later in a house fire along with pictures of her father.
Leatherwood was buried in Belgium for three years before the U.S. Army sent his body home to College Hill in 1947.
Somewhere in the old College Hill cemetery in Pontotoc County, Leatherwood was laid to rest.
Neither Jimmie Mae nor the historical fact-finders know exactly where. But at some point in the very near future, there will be a monument erected in his honor.
There's also a documentary "Wereth 11" that will be shown February 21 at the Pontotoc County Library.
"Its a sad thing, but he did some good," added Leatherwood. "He did it for our country."
Pontotoc County veterans service officer Bill Wardlaw says an effort is underway to get Leatherwood's medals replaced.
His monument at the College Hill Cemetery could arrive within six to eight weeks.
