Jack Kagebein

Bested Nazis, went home to his farm

Infantryman Jack Kagebein crossed paths with one of Germany's top Nazis at the end of World War II.

Kagebein pushed across the Rhine into Germany in 1945 as a soldier in the 1st Infantry Division and later guarded Hermann Goering, a high-level member of the Nazi Party and head of the Luftwaffe, after the war while serving as a military policeman.

Returning to the United States in June 1945, Kagebein came home to Almyra, married Mary Ellen Newman in November 1945 and turned to farming.

Kagebein, 90, died Wednesday of cancer in Almyra, where he was born Nov. 21, 1924, to Fannie and Franz Kagebein.

"He was very kind," said Kagebein's son, 60-year-old Lonnie Kagebein of Almyra. "He didn't say a whole lot. He didn't talk about the war much until late in his life."

When he did share war stories, Lonnie Kagebein said his father talked of pursuing the German army into the mountains of Germany during the late stages of the war in Europe. He also spoke of trading a pack of cigarettes to a little boy in a German village for a German rifle.

"I still got the rifle," Lonnie Kagebein said.

Jack Kagebein guarded Goering, taking him out for exercise, and was responsible for keeping tabs on the Nazi when he was in his cell, Lonnie Kagebein said.

Lonnie Kagebein's wife, Margo Kagebein, said she remembers her father-in-law recounting the time actor Mickey Rooney tried to enter a building Jack Kagebein was guarding. Although he recognized the famous actor, Kagebein turned him away because Rooney didn't have the necessary pass.

"As most of these veterans are, he was very special," Margo Kagebein said. "He was a very gentle man."

Jack Kagebein and Mary Ellen, 85, were married for 69 years before Jack Kagebein died. Jack Kagebein's older brother, Carl, 92, died the day before him.

"He [Jack] lived on a little farm there right outside of Almyra," Lonnie Kagebein said. "That's where he lived when he went to war; that's where he went when he came back from the war; and that's where he died the other night."

In his civilian life, Jack Kagebein was a farmer, raising rice and beans, but Lonnie Kagebein said his father also always had "a little airplane."

"He loved to fly little planes," said Lonnie Kagebein, noting his father had an Aeronca Champion and a Piper J-3 Cub. "It was a hobby."

Jack Kagebein also loved playing his Gibson Heritage acoustic guitar, strumming old country tunes, Lonnie Kagebein said.

Other hobbies of Jack Kagebein were duck and deer hunting, and he was a member of Almyra First United Methodist Church, where he attended all the business meetings and took up offerings.

"His wife likes to say he's an old Southern gentleman," said David Relyea, a close friend and fellow member of the church. "He didn't brag about his military service, but he was as Tom Brokaw says, 'one of the greatest generation.'"

Metro on 06/06/2015

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