Memorial

Biography

The following was written by his nephew, Nocholas Le Cursi: Private Nicholas Anthony LeCursi was born in Niles, Ohio, and grew up during the great depression with his older brother Marty, younger brother Marshall and sisters Marie and Della. He was the son of Costantino (Gus), an Albanian immigrant from southern Italy and Anna LeCursi. The boys grew up helping tend the garden, cutting railroad ties with a two-man saw to fire the family’s pizza oven, fighting for fun, and building things. Marty recounted the day that he built a boat, and Nick volunteered to take it on its maiden voyage on the river. “Nick was a strong swimmer,” Marty said, “but he nearly drowned when that boat sank, the current was so strong. Mom was not happy and took a broomstick to me. When she turned to Nick, I took that broomstick away from her.”. When war came to Europe, Marty and Nick both enlisted. Marty became a radioman in the US Navy stationed on the Enewetak Atoll, and Nick enlisted in the Army. Nick was originally assigned as a medic, but wanted to serve in the infantry and so requested a transfer to the Paratroopers. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and became a Screaming Eagle. Marty recalled that Nick and he exchanged letters during the war. In one letter, Nick expressed how he wanted payback for his best friend, killed earlier that year at Normandy. He got his chance in 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. In his book “Deliver us from darkness,” author Ian Gardner tells the story of how Nick was killed in action. The story was recounted by Alex “Zanny” Spurr, who was there on that day. Nick was part of a patrol sent forward to hold a wooden footbridge at all costs. The enemy swam across the waterway and got behind the patrol. It was in the ensuing firefight that Nick was killed. After the war, the government asked Nick’s family where they would like Nick laid to rest. Marty knew it had to be among his comrades at the American Cemetery Margraten. Marty returned to the U.S. and started a family of four. He named his son Nicholas A. LeCursi in honor of his fallen brother. When I was a boy, pop used to tell me stories of his life growing up with his brothers in Ohio. There was a certain amusement he would express as he recounted the adventures of rambunctious boys growing up during the Great Depression. But when he told those stories, I always sensed just a hint of sadness. A sadness that came with those recollections of the brother lost after only nineteen years and who he spent the rest of his life trying to find. Pop never knew how Nick died, making the ultimate sacrifice, as did so many laid to rest beside him at Margraten. But the life of Pvt. Nicholas Anthony LeCursi will forever be memorialized in that garden and the fruit born of his legacy.

More information

Pvt Nicholas A. Le Cursi enlisted at Camp Perry Lacarne, Ohio on 30 March 1943.