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187 Epilogue Last Honors Thomas Neibaur’s life had some peaks and perhaps more valleys. Idaho writer Vardis Fisher wrote of Neibaur’s passing and legacy a week after his death. Recalling the heady day in Sugar City in May 1919, Thomas’s day of glory, Fisher wrote, “Of Neibaur’s life after that day of roses, the less said the better; but whatever his life was, the fault was not his.” The latter was a fair and reasonable comment. Neibaur was not at fault for the adversity he faced. Fisher was wrong on one count, though; his life needed a full, not a selective, telling. “A year later,” after that day in 1919 when Neibaur was honored by ten thousand people, “nobody remembered the hero whose name had been on every tongue that day. . . . Then, as if he had been only a fad, he was dismissed and forgotten and the other day he died while still young. Neibaur’s life from the day he came back until he died is a parable of ironic and blistering commentary on human nature.” As World War II raged, Vardis Fisher thought it a final irony that “When Idaho’s school kids were asked to suggest a name for a new battleship, perhaps not one of them thought of Neibaur. Very possibly not a one of them had ever heard of him. . . . Well, Tom, rest in peace. It is our shame and not yours.”1 The only known memorial to Thomas Neibaur was the Sugar City park named after him in 2003. In July 2008, though, Sugar City officials, family, and friends gathered to dedicate 188 Place the Headstones Where They Belong in the park a beautiful monument honoring Thomas, and they held a special memorial symposium to recognize his service and bravery. * * * * * Neibaur’s remains were shipped to St. Anthony, Idaho, and prepared for burial, which took place on Monday, December 28, 1943, in Sugar City. A funeral attended by hundreds of people, including family members, took place in the LDS Teton Ward chapel. John “Jack” Hayward of Idaho Falls, a friend, war veteran, and commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, spoke, as did Bishop W. D. Hollist. None of Thomas Neibaur’s immediate family was in attendance: Lillian Neibaur, his wife, was seriously ill with pneumonia in Boise; all six children were too far away and did not have the means to travel. Some of Thomas’s sisters and cousins attended. There was an honor guard, a volley of rifles, and the grave was dedicated in LDS fashion. A dozen articles and papers carried the story, and they all recounted Neibaur’s gallant actions on October 16, 1918, at Côte de Châtillon. Weeks later, on February 25, 1943, the state legislature convened a joint session to honor him. That day, Mrs. Lillian Golden Neibaur presented to Governor C. C. Bottolfsen Thomas Neibaur’s seven awards and decorations , including the Medal of Honor, which had finally been returned, “to be held in trust for the children of Thomas C. Neibaur and the people of the state of Idaho.” They remain to this day, except for the missing Croix de Guerre, in the custody of the Idaho State Historical Society and Museum.2 There are two poignant photographs of four handsome, smiling young boys standing straight and erect at the children ’s home in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars founded the home in 1925 for the orphaned children of members.3 The Neibaur children were now supported by an institution largely because of the renown and war service of their father. Some of Neibaur’s family continued to meet adversity and sorrow after his death, but some met success. His eldest daughter , Faye Neibaur Braden, fell down the steps of her home in Last Honors 189 Seattle and died from injuries in 1951; she was thirty years old. Lamar “Bud” Neibaur, the eldest surviving boy, served at the end of World War II in the navy, later worked at the Boeing aircraft plant near Seattle in Washington, and committed suicide in 1950; he was twenty-three years old.4 The two twins, Leo and Cleo, graduated from high school and led full lives. Leo became a photographer in Sacramento, California, married, and was affiliated with the Sacramento Bees baseball team. Cleo died in 2006 in California after a career with the City of Sacramento and service in the navy during the Korean War. Gene, the youngest...

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