PFC Robert Lee Sabie

courtesy of Mike & Bushy Hartman

PFC Robert Lee Sabie was born 5 Nov 1923 in Covington, Kentucky. He was the oldest son of Benjamin Franklin and Josephine Katherine (Bricken) Sabie. Josephine was Benjamin's 2nd wife. Benjamin worked as a carpenter and the family owned a home on Wadison Pike in Taylor Mill valued at $4000 in 1930. However the couple was not living together in 1940 and Robert, his mother and brother were living at 301 West 7th Street in Covington from at least 1935. Robert had completed 1 year of high school at that time and his mother was working as a collector of installment payments. By 1943 Robert had managed to graduate from Holmes High School in Covington and complete 1 year of college at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He had worked briefly for the Cal Crim Detective Agency in Cincinnati.

Robert was drafted in February 1943. After completing his military training he was sent overseas in January 1944 and assigned to L Company 116th Infantry. PVT Sabie participated in the D-Day landings. He was promoted to PFC on 20 Jun 1944. He was wounded on 9 Jul 1944 as the unit fought through the hedgerows in the attempt to take Saint-Lo, France. Evacuated to hospital, PFC Sabie died of his wound(s) on 10 Jul 1944.

PFC Sabie is interred in the Normandy American Cemetery.

His younger brother Charles Andrew Sabie was drafted in 1946 and served in the U.S. Army. His father had served in the U.S. Army as a cook in F Battery 15th Field Artillery including service in France in the first World War. Great-grandfather, James Madison Sabie, had served as a PVT in E Company 16th Kentucky Infantry (USA) 1861-1865.