WWII sweethearts may see each other again – this time in Mississippi
The love story of nonagenarians K.T. Robbins and Jeannine Ganaye spans 75 years and two continents. Now, after a brief reunion in France, it appears there is another chapter to be written for these two wartime darlings.
A Collierville-based veterans group, an Olive Branch neighbor, a French journalist and a Las Vegas businessman are working to make sure the sweethearts stay in contact — and even see each other again.
Their story began about 75 years ago, when 24year-old Robbins met 18-year-old Ganaye while he was serving in Briey, now known as Val de Briey, a town in northeastern France.
They spent almost three months together and fell in love, but duty called and Robbins was sent to the
front lines and then returned home to Memphis.
Upon his return, Robbins got married and opened a hardware store with his wife, Lillian. They were married for 70 years when Lillian died in 2015.
Having waited five years for Robbins to return to France, Ganaye eventually married and had five children with her husband, who died about 30 years ago.
As the decades passed, Robbins, now 97, and Ganaye, now 92, never forgot each other.
Their second chapter started when Linda Tosh, Robbins’ neighbor in Olive Branch, found a Facebook post about a Forever Young Senior Veterans trip to France in honor of the 75th anniversary of the D-day invasion of Normandy. She helped Robbins fill out an application.
A part of the application asked if there was anyone from the war the veterans wished to find. Robbins told Tosh to put Ganaye’s family on there.
Diane Hight, founder and president of Forever Young Senior Veterans, saw the application and spoke to Tosh. They thought it was a shot in the dark looking for someone from 75 years ago, but they tried.
Hight contacted France 2, a French news channel, hoping they could find Ganaye — and they did thanks to Agnes Vahramian, a France 2 correspondent in Washington, D.C.
Vahramian said one night she spent about two hours searching through Google and the White Pages for a person she knew nothing about.
“One of my challenges was to guess the French name out of an American pronunciation,” Vahramian said. “There were a bunch of Ganaye families in Meurthe et Moselle, the county of Val de Briey. I picked the old-fashioned first names and began calling them the next morning.”
She said she stumbled upon Ganaye’s brother, Daniel, who said his sister remembered the American soldier.
Vahramian said it took a bit of persuading to get Ganaye to see Robbins again.
“I called Jeannine, but she ‘needed time to know if she wanted to meet with him again,’ “Vahramian said. “It took me a few days to convince, because she was afraid of the others’ opinions and to be misjudged.”
Eventually, Vahramian and Ganaye’s nurse convinced her to see Robbins.
On June 8, the two lovebirds finally embraced again.
“Imagine seeing somebody 75 years after you met her, and when you see her the love is right there again,” Robbins said. “Just wow. It was tremendous.”
The reunited sweethearts spent about two hours together at the nursing home where Ganaye lives, and talked about how their love for each other never went away.
Unfortunately, once again, Robbins had to return to the United States, but they said it would not be the last time they saw each other.
Now a team is dedicated to keeping Robbins and Ganaye connected.
Vahramian and Hight are working to set up emails or video calls between the two. Hight is in the process of getting a computer for Robbins, and Vahramian has offered to translate emails between the two — Robbins speaks only English, while Ganaye speaks only French. (Robbins said their language barrier was not an issue back in the ‘40s: “I spoke enough French to get by, but with a lot of hand motions and make outs we could make it by all right.”)
Their love story has caught the attention of people around the world, including a Las Vegas businessman who wants to fund Ganaye’s trip to visit Robbins in Mississippi.
Manny Cordova, owner of Ballistic & Explosive Detection Dogs, found the story so moving that he requested to pay for Ganaye’s trip.
Cordova said the story reminded him of his late father, who served in Tokyo during WWII.
“The story struck some personal chords,” Cordova said. “This is just my way of giving back. Some people give to the Red Cross and give blood, but this is just something that I do.”
Robbins said he invited Ganaye and her family to stay with him in Mississippi and promised to show them “a good time.”
“I told her family to bring her over here,” Robbins said. “We’ll take care of her, and we’ll get to enjoy each other for a while. We’ll take them out, we’ll take them to Elvis — got to take them to Graceland.”