Hardy bought the medal, then posted a photo of it to her personal Facebook page in the hopes of locating its rightful owners.
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“For it to just be lost in the shuffle and show up at Goodwill at that price, you can’t put a price on a medal”, Laura Hardy implored. Hardy told KPHO/KTVK-TV that she learned Whiteman served in the U.S. Army, did not have any children and was likely buried at a national cemetery in Oregon. “We’re going to take it out and try to connect with its family”. The price tag on the item was $4.99.
“I woke up at 6 a.m. and saw the post and went right to finding Eual Whiteman using online databases such as Familysearch.com and Newspapers.com”, she said.
Hardy said on Facebook that the breakthrough came when she connected with Tina Durnil Cook, of the Facebook group Veteran Buddy Finder, who tracked down the person who originally had the medal – Whiteman’s nephew.
Thanks to her hard work and the power of social media, Hardy said the medal is now on its way back to its rightful owner.
“It’s heavy and it’s engraved”, Hardy said.
That relative, Whiteman’s former sister-in-law Phyllis Lawson, said she was shocked to get phone calls from Cook and Hardy yesterday letting her know that Whiteman’s Purple Heart had been found in Arizona.
“Who knew what this man did to earn this medal?” she told KPNX-TV.
A woman who found a purple heart for sale at a thrift store was able to track down the family of the awardee.
According to Fox8, Whiteman’s Purple Heart ended up in a box of Whiteman’s nephew’s things that were donated, and that is how it managed to find its way into a Goodwill store. “They are processing thousands of items every day so this was unfortunately an example of an item that slipped through and wasn’t identified as a Purple Heart”.
“It must’ve been very valuable to his family and I thought they should have it back”, she added.
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Lawsom was very surprised to hear about the Purple Heart, an award Witeman shared with his own father.
