Published April 25, 2005, in the Kirksville Daily Express

Story by Matthew Webber

BRASHEAR, Mo. - Discarded but discovered decades later at a garage sale, two photographs of a World War II soldier and his brother will be returned to the brother, thanks to the persistence of one local woman.

When Nancy Platz, a retired teacher from Brashear, found the black-and-white photographs inside of a frame she bought last summer, she began a campaign to track down the men.

Enlisting a class of fifth grade students from Brashear to help her, she searched the Internet, hung the photos in her husband's barbershop and publicized her quest in the Daily Express.

The same night the story appeared, her family's phone began ringing off the hook, as strangers from across the state shared tales and contact information of the two former La Plata boys, Darrel and Vernon Naylor, who stood smiling in one of the photographs.

Darrel, the seaman whose name is written on the back of his portrait, had died in an automobile accident shortly after returning from the war, Platz learned, but Vernon was alive and well in the Kansas City suburbs.

So, Platz contacted him and arranged a meeting sometime this summer, when Vernon visits old friends in the area.

Platz, whose father, husband and son all have served in the military, could not be happier about reuniting the photos with the family.

"It was so neat he was 15 minutes away," Platz said. "I can't believe it turned out like it did. I didn't dream he was so close."

Knowing how much her own family's war mementos mean to them, Platz wanted the Naylors to have something to remember their late family member.

"We were really honoring him," Platz said. "We heard so many wonderful stories of him and his family in La Plata. Everyone loved the Naylor family."

Vernon Naylor already had a smaller version of the photo of him and his brother, but the retired foundry owner is excited to get a larger print that he can frame and display in his home along with his brother's portrait.

Thinking the photo was lost, Vernon was surprised to hear Platz had it.

"I kind of remember that photo," he said, "but that's a really old photo."

Darrel had been back from the war for about a year when he died in a car crash on a foggy night in Millard.

Because Vernon believes the photo of the brothers was taken shortly before the incident, it might be one of the last photos of Darrel.

But now that the photo has been found, Darrel's memory can live on, as Vernon's four children living in the

Kansas City area can see a picture of the uncle they never knew.

Click here to read the original story.