In memory of Robert Lee HooperAuthor of the memorial page is Cemetery Manager

Stop just a moment to reflect on these brothers, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hooper of East Main Street, Westminster, who died a week apart in France – less than a month before Christmas 1944. Edward was 21; Robert was 18. The [Carroll County] Times had a large headline across the front page of its 22 December 1944, issue which read “Merry Christmas.” Under that was a small article entitled “County Casualties” and on another line “HOOPER BROTHERS ON CASUALTY LIST.” “Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Hooper, Westminster, have received word through the War Department that their son Cpl. Edward L. Hooper, serving with the Third Army, has been wounded in France, November 25; and their son PFC Robert L.

Hooper is missing in France as of December 3.”

The boys were honored posthumously in a broadcast on Frederick radio station

WFMD in August 1945, and were included in a long list of men who had made the

ultimate sacrifice – “Gold Star Men of Carroll World War II.” The U.S. government

and newspapers undoubtedly did their best to remember these young men, but

Christmas was probably never the same again for the Hooper family. On 26 August 1948, the Times carried another article on the front page – “Bodies of Carroll Heroes Being Returned...Included among the large number of [World] War II dead returned on the United States Army Transport Victory, are four from Westminster: the two sons of Mr. & Mrs. Thomas E. Hooper of 121 E. Main

Street…”