Norway honours US woman who tended to WWII sailors’ graves

By The Associated Press

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Norwegian government has awarded an American woman a commemorative medal for her work caring for the graves of Norwegian sailors who died during World War II while in upstate New York.

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports Natalie Leduc received the medal at a ceremony at Harrietstown Town Hall Monday evening.

Leduc has helped maintain the graves at Pine Ridge Cemetery in the village of Saranac Lake for the past 37 years.

Hundreds of Norwegian sailors were sent to Saranac Lake for treatment after contracting tuberculosis at sea during World War II. Sixteen sailors and one captain’s daughter are buried in the cemetery, as well as Leduc’s husband.

A man believed to be the last of the Norwegian sailors who came to the village to be cured of tuberculosis died last year at 97.

The Associated Press

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