Program & Book Signing about Fayette Co. Native in World War II Set for this Thursday

As Veterans Day approaches, the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives is sponsoring a program and book signing about veteran and Fayette County native, Robert Lee Melcher, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 23rd in the meeting room of the Fayette Public Library. Just released in September by Texas A&M University Press, A German Texan in World War II: The Diary, Letters and Memorabilia of an 88th Infantry Officer, was written by his daughter, Marilyn Melcher Maddox, who will be in La Grange to sign copies and tell Melcher’s story.

Robert Lee Melcher served from 1943 to 1945 as a major in the US Army in North Africa and Italy, leaving the war decorated with a Bronze Star Medal for his heroism. A member of Texas A&M University’s Class of 1932, Melcher retired from A&M and, after his passing in 1991, his daughter found cardboard boxes stuffed with old letters, scrapbooks, photographs, hand-drawn maps, and more.

Maddox originally planned to compile these items into a story of her father’s wartime experience to pass along to her two sons. However, that project ultimately grew into the publication of this volume, part of the Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series. Described as a memoir within a memoir, Maddox’s book shares not only her father’s war diary and memorabilia from the war, but also her memories of growing up in College Station and even visits to her grandparents’ home in La Grange.

Melcher kept a diary during the war that was written from the perspective of a loyal American officer who fought against the army of his ancestral homeland. A prolific writer and careful record keeper, Melcher wrote eloquently about the human aspect of war, asking agonizing questions about his German Texan heritage.

Maddox writes that as his time in combat unfolded, her father came to see a different side of the German traditions and pride that had molded him as a youth. On May 3, 1945, Melcher wrote, “I’m sure the pictures and stories of German prison camps are convincing as to the true nature of Germans. And convincing as to what the US would have been in for, had we not fought when we did. My idea of a German is lots different than what it was. Some of my friends were in those prison camps.”

Besides copies of her book, which sells for $25, Maddox will bring along some of Melcher’s personal artifacts. The Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives is located at 855 South Jefferson Street in La Grange. Please use the after-hours entrance to the meeting room located toward the rear of the building on Franklin Street.