{"id":351538,"date":"2026-07-24T20:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351538\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T20:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:50:07","slug":"valdosta-world-war-ii-hero-laid-to-rest-after-more-than-80-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351538\/","title":{"rendered":"Valdosta World War II hero laid to rest after more than 80 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Valdosta World War II hero who was missing for over 80 years was finally laid to rest in a ceremony Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Private Mack Homer was killed in action on July 7th, 1944, near Saint-Marcouf, Normandy, France, shortly after the D-Day Invasion. It took more than eight years for his remains to be recovered and on Friday his family was able to give him an honorable burial. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It was an emotional day for the family as they said goodbye, but they said it was also a day full of gratitude and peace. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More news out of South Georgia:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dozens gathered at the Tallahassee National Cemetery to bring the decades-long journey to an end with a proper burial. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A full U.S. military honors, a presentation of the flag, a three-volley rifle salute and heartwarming words highlighting Homer\u2019s sacrifice gave a new sense of closure. There was an official burial right after the ceremony, where Homer\u2019s headstone will sit in the National Cemetery among many other fallen heroes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tune in to Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the full story. This article will also be updated this evening with all the details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/07\/24\/valdosta-world-war-ii-hero-laid-rest-after-more-than-80-years\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Valdosta World War II hero who was missing for over 80 years was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[143767,15297,634,115,25559,143766,143768,232,234,61685,233,3591],"class_list":["post-351538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-d-day-invasion","tag-france","tag-local","tag-news","tag-normandy","tag-private-mack-homer","tag-saint-marcouf","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-national-cemetery","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}