80 years after his father died in WWII, he finally learned where and how

Syracuse, Nebraska – Gerri Eisenhauer's father, Army Pvt. William Walters, was sent to World War II before he was born.

In 1944, his family returned his body along with a US government certificate stating that he had died somewhere in France.

“I've always wondered where he went, how he died, it was a small part of the story that was missing from my life,” Eisenhauer told CBS News.

For decades, the family resigned because they would never know. That is, until a few months ago.

Eisenhauer was at his home in Syracuse, Nebraska, this past summer when he received a message from Christophe Ligere, a French historian, from the village of Grez-sur-Loing, in central France. The message, in part, read, “During the meeting 80 years for the freedom of France, we honor Private William Walters.”

Ligere had found Walters' name in the diary of an eyewitness to his death, and immediately felt he had to find Walters' family. Ligere did some research and found a Walters family tree, and from there she found an online obituary for another Eisenhauer relative, where she left him that message.

“We wanted our soldier,” Eisenhauer's daughter, Jan Moore, told CBS News. “We didn't know he was their soldier either.”

As Eisenhauer studied in Ligere, in August 1944, American troops began to liberate the town of Grez-sur-Loing. It was a happy day, but there was one fatality: while crossing the River Loing into town, Walters' boat capsized and he drowned at age 20.

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

Marc Perrot had witnessed Walters' death at the age of 13.

“They went looking for him and found him,” explained Perrot in an interview with France Télévisions. “They did many things to try to revive him, but to no avail.

Perrot met with Eisenhauer and showed him where they laid his father to rest before his body was returned to the US.

“They covered him with flowers,” Eisenhauer said of the French. “It's just amazing, the care they give him.”

This week, Eisenhauer returned to his father's grave in Cass County, Nebraska.

“I started here and I had answers,” Eisenhauer said.

He says now he feels at peace, and all this is thanks to the grateful people of France, who even at 80, still see the US through the prism of our better angels.

“It's very important because…young people are coming out of the US…to fight for democracy…in France,” Ligere told CBS News.