In June of 1942, just six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Reino enlisted in the U.S. By the spring of 1940, Reino was living in Beacon, working as an engineer’s assistant in an iron ore mine, and making about $950 per year. The older Hyry children were left to support and raise their younger siblings. Nine years after that, when Reino was 18, his mother died. Charles, a worker for the Marquette Country Road Commission, was killed in an accident when Reino was just 9 years old. He was one of 10 children born to Charles and Saimi Beck Hyry. His childhood was perhaps emblematic for a boy who came of age during the Depression. Reino Hyry was born in Champion, Michigan on July 19, 1914. To get to the place where Reino Hyry died, we must go back into town, and drive to the end of Issel Street. Isselstrasse.” This is not the way, she says. She looks down at the picture of Reino Hyry, nods, and says softly, “Ah, so.” She studies the map carefully, and points to another road. “Diese Mann hat hier gestorben.” I’ve expressed it poorly, but she understands that I’m trying to tell her that this man died at that spot.
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