Coming home
After 82 years, missing World War II soldier from Valdese to finally be laid to rest
BURKE COUNTY
It's been 82 years since he went missing in a river in France, but now his family will finally get to lay him to rest beside his parents, who always held hope that their son would come home.
Cpl. Colen Maxwell Hoyle, who was 22 years old when he went missing and presumably died during a battle in World War II, will be laid to rest in Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery on Old 18 South in Burke County.
He will be buried beside his father. As kismet would have it, it was the only plot in the graveyard area where his parents are buried, said Linda McIntosh, Hoyle's niece. Her mother was Colen Hoyle's sister.
He still has a surviving brother, Bill Hoyle, who is in his 90s and lives in South Carolina, McIntosh said. In addition to Bill, he had three sisters, Aileen Hoyle Deal, Zora Lee Hoyle Johnson and Eula Mae Hoyle Crowder, who are all deceased.
McIntosh said Colen's parents, Gordon Maxwell Hoyle and Branch Brady Young Hoyle, looked for their son until they died.
"They just knew that he would come back," McIntosh said.
Hoyle was born July 27, 1922, and grew up in Valdese and graduated from Valdese High School, McIntosh said. When he went missing, he was married and expecting a child. The couple lived on Summit Street in Morganton, according to news stories at the time.
War
Hoyle was a member of the Valdese Church of God. And at that time, they didn't believe in killing, so he was the radio equipment carrier, McIntosh said.
A story in the Dec. 18, 1945, edition of The News Herald said Hoyle was serving with the 949th Field Artillery Battalion. The story said a letter dated Dec. 7, 1945, addressed to his wife, Mrs. Mildred G. Hoyle, from the War Department said that Cpl. Hoyle was a member of a forward observation party whose mission was to establish a bridgehead across the Saar River in Lorraine, France, on Dec. 6, 1944, at the time he was reported missing in action.
All members of the party, the letter said, crossed the river in a boat and reached the other side safely; however, upon landing, intense enemy fire was encountered by Cpl. Hoyle, and his party became separated. When the party reassembled, they found Hoyle was missing, The News Herald reported at the time.
McIntosh said Hoyle's unit was in heavy artillery in the area and he and his company were on a boat. He was standing with his radio equipment on him when he told his captain, "I've been shot." He fell in the water, and they were never able to recover his body at the time, she said.
Hoyle's captain sent a letter to the family letting them know what happened, McIntosh said.
Hoyle went missing just four days before his wife, Mildred Lucille Gallion Hoyle, gave birth to their daughter, Judy Gail Hoyle Gray, on Dec. 10, 1944. Judy died on Oct. 25, 2024, according to her obituary.
A year after he went missing, Hoyle was declared killed in action, according to The News Herald story.
Finding Colen
About two years ago, a military representative called Bill Hoyle and said, "We think we have found the remains of your brother," McIntosh said. They traveled to Bill, who was in the military for 32 years, and did DNA testing, she said.
McIntosh said the family assumed maybe the military thought the soldier might be Hoyle by the equipment that was maybe found with him because they never recovered it either.
After the testing, the wait to find out whether he was a match to the soldier was agonizing.
"So my Uncle Bill told me, he said, 'Linda, I really thought that it was a hoax, or either that they found out it was not my brother,'" McIntosh said.
She said Bill expressed a fear that the unknown and the waiting would make him have a heart attack. McIntosh told him they were all worried about him and said they should just put it to sleep and forget it for the time being.
However, about six months ago, they called Bill and said, "We have definitely proven the DNA testing that he is your brother," she said.
"We're excited that they found his remains," McIntosh said.
The remains of Colen Hoyle have been at a lab in Nebraska since being found in France, McIntosh said.
Bill Hoyle got a call the week of Oct. 5 telling him U.S. Army representatives would be coming to visit him at his home in South Carolina on Oct. 23. The Army, with input from his brother, will make all the arrangements and will pay for everything. The funeral will be done by Heritage Funeral Home in Valdese, McIntosh said.
His parents are buried at Zion Hill Baptist Church cemetery in Burke County. There is a tombstone already there for Hoyle. The family had a memorial service for him several years ago, and the family put the tombstone there despite not having his remains.
"We just never dreamed this would happen," McIntosh said of finally being able to lay Colen to rest.
