{"id":167954,"date":"2025-08-23T01:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T01:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167954\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T01:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T01:40:11","slug":"long-lost-purple-heart-returned-to-family-of-chicago-vet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167954\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-lost Purple Heart returned to family of Chicago vet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weeks before Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in World War II, a young Chicagoan named Stephen Grabowski was stationed in Italy on his way to La Spezia when enemy forces struck his bunker with a grenade.<\/p>\n

He survived beneath the rubble, but the 27-year-old Army private lost use of both of his legs and his fingers after a beam struck him on the neck and crushed a vertebra, according to his military records.<\/p>\n

Some 80 years after the April 1945 attack, the long-lost Purple Heart, Bronze Star and other medals Grabowski received for his heroism during three years of military service have made their way back to his family.<\/p>\n

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs returned the medals to Grabowski\u2019s great-niece Thursday during a touching ceremony at the Marion Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1301 in southern Illinois.<\/p>\n

Chrystal Cantrell reached out to the treasurer\u2019s office late last year seeking the medals after the Tribune tracked her down as part of its effort to find the families connected to nearly a dozen Purple Hearts that had ended up in the state\u2019s unclaimed property vault in Springfield.<\/p>\n

Cantrell was 6 when Grabowski died in May 1974.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I personally never got to meet my great-uncle,\u201d said Cantrell, who wore an American flag-patterned dress to the ceremony, \u201cyou have no idea how much this means to me. \u2026 We must always remember we enjoy the freedoms we have because someone else stood up and did the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As treasurer, Frerichs is custodian of the state\u2019s unclaimed property section. He has returned 16 Purple Hearts during his three terms in office.<\/p>\n

Frerichs launched a special effort, \u201cOperation Purple Heart,\u201d in 2021 to raise awareness about war medals that had ended up in the state vault after being abandoned in bank safe deposit boxes.<\/p>\n

Last year, as Veterans Day approached<\/a>, the Tribune set out to identify the Purple Heart veterans whose medals were unclaimed. After months of researching public records, unearthing decades-old war documents and interviewing people linked to the safe deposit boxes, the Tribune succeeded in 10 of the 11 cases on the treasurer\u2019s public list \u2014 including that of Grabowski.<\/p>\n

\"ElevenEleven Purple Heart medals awarded to Illinois veterans ended up in the unclaimed property section vault of the Illinois treasurer’s office. State Treasurer Michael Frerichs launched a special effort, \u201cOperation Purple Heart,” in 2021 to raise awareness about the abandoned war medals.<\/p>\n

The treasurer\u2019s office has been working to verify the claims of relatives who have come forward so far following the Tribune\u2019s reporting, officials said. Frerichs pledged to continue his effort. As of Friday, seven Purple Hearts remained in the state vault.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is never too late to honor the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation,\u201d Frerichs said of Grabowski\u2019s medal. \u201cThis man gave much for his country. \u2026 His honor survives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state had preserved Grabowski\u2019s medals in its Springfield vault since 2010. Besides the Purple Heart, the state also had Grabowski\u2019s Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal and various campaign medals.<\/p>\n

The safe deposit box was in the name of Cantrell\u2019s father, one of Grabowski\u2019s nephews. He had gained possession of the medals from his aunt Helen Czerwinski, the veteran\u2019s sister, after she died in 2006. Cantrell accepted the medals on behalf of her father, who is in poor health in a Chicago nursing home.<\/p>\n

The Tribune\u2019s efforts last year to identify Grabowski as the owner of the medals took some work. As it turned out, the Polish last name provided by the bank was misspelled, and no one with either spelling was connected to the address through available public records.<\/p>\n

\"AA Bronze Star was awarded to Stephen Grabowski, a WWII vet from Chicago who died in 1974. The medal, along with Grabowski’s Purple Heart, ended up in the unclaimed property section vault of the Illinois treasurer’s office in Springfield. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

But a 1950 census documented someone with a similar name from Chicago\u2019s Bridgeport neighborhood. That information led the Tribune to a relative, from the Chicago area, who provided the name of a paralyzed uncle who had been injured during WWII. The National Archives unearthed military records that confirmed Grabowski served in the war and received the type of medals held in the treasurer\u2019s vault. The Tribune later tracked down Cantrell.<\/p>\n

Born in Chicago to Polish immigrant parents, Grabowski worked as a checker at Goldblatt\u2019s in Chicago before the war and enjoyed softball, table tennis and fishing, according to relatives and his military records.<\/p>\n

A rifleman in the Army\u2019s Company B, 473rd Infantry, he served about three years overseas. With victory in sight, he was injured in the final Allied attack during the war\u2019s European campaign, records show. Four months later, Japan surrendered, and the war was over.<\/p>\n

Grabowski returned to Chicago, paralyzed from the waist down, and began living at Hines VA Hospital.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Thompson, right, representing the Good Fellows organization, presents a cash gift to Stephen Grabowski, 36, at Hines Veterans Hospital on Dec. 19, 1953. Good Fellows was a charity that gave out gifts during the holidays. (George Quinn\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Tribune photographed him there in December 1953 when writing about a charitable campaign during the holiday season. And he was among those at the hospital who were interviewed for a 1967 Memorial Day feature in the Chicago Sun-Times, in which Grabowski said he spent his time reading and watching television. He also enjoyed the racetrack.<\/p>\n

Grabowski died at age 56 from kidney failure, his death certificate said. He is buried in a crypt at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Justice, not far from his parents and two sisters.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about a Purple Heart return, particularly a safe deposit box connected to Robert Cawthon, is urged to contact the Illinois treasurer\u2019s office at claimantconnect@illinoistreasurer.gov. For more information, visit https:\/\/www.illinoistreasurer.gov\/purplehearts\/<\/p>\n

cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 3:38 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weeks before Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in World War II, a young Chicagoan named Stephen Grabowski…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,96318,5386,1818,96320,96319,57302],"class_list":{"0":"post-167954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-good-conduct-medal","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-michael-frerichs","13":"tag-operation-purple-heart","14":"tag-purple-heart"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}