Sandy Bee Lynn dedicates MAPS display for her D-Day paratrooper father

Former BJ Reference Librarian Sandy Fuller Bee Lynn and her siblings today helped dedicate the Military Aviation Preservation Society (MAPS) Museum display of their father, Henry Fuller, who was a World War II paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division (the famous Screaming Eagle) that jumped over Normandy on D-Day.

Sandy and her siblings donated their father’s uniform, medals and other items to MAPS, including his uniform that was on display in France for more than a year.

Henry and 791 men in the 502^nd regiment flew out of Greenham Common Airfield in England to jump over  Normandy on D-Day, when America and its Allies invaded Hitler’s Europe in 1944. Only 126 survived.

Henry was in a famous photo taken of Gen. Dwight D.  Eisenhower and Lt. Wallace C. Strobel before the unit headed for Normandy.

The New Horizons Band, directed by Jim Adkins, performed patriotic music at the dedication ceremony. Sandy’s husband, Glenn, was among the band performers. Sandy is in the strings section of the New Horizons Band.       

Henry Fuller was born in Akron in 1922, the youngest of 10 children. His mother died when he was only four years old and he spent much of his childhood in the Summit County Children’s Home.

On New Year’s Eve 1945 Henry married Arline Mitchell. They had three children: Sandy, Ron and Timothy. All three, who spoke at their father’s MAPS dedication, grew up mostly in North Hill. Henry was a letter carrier in the U.S. Postal Service for more than 30 years.

He passed away at the age of 80 in 2003 in Wadsworth.  

Henry worked at the Phillips Paper Bag Factory in Akron before attending Parachute School in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Sandy worked in the Wadsworth and Orrville libraries after leaving the BJ. She lives in Doylestown with husband Glenn Lynn.

In 2009 Sandy survived a head-on collision with a drunk driver who had a previous record but didn’t have insurance or a driver’s license and was in a car that didn’t belong to him. He’s still is in the Ohio Penitentiary.