Leader of D-Day paratroopers

In Sainte-Mhre-Eglise, a small town in the Normandy region of France, is Rue Robert Murphy, a street named in honor of the Boston lad who joined the Army at 17, parachuted there on D-Day, and dedicated part of his life to maintaining the memory of the civilians and soldiers who died there on June 6, 1944.

His mission was historic, said retired Army Col. Keith Nightingale, who frequently accompanied Mr. Murphy when he revisited the town on D-Day anniversaries.

"It has been confirmed by historians that Bob Murphy was the first guy out and on the ground on the [82nd Airborne Division's] lift into Normandy," Nightingale said.

One pathfinder job was to mark drop zones for the paratroopers to follow. "Bob was the first on the ground and the last to leave," Nightingale said.

Mr. Murphy's role in the Normandy landing is depicted in Cornelius Ryan's book "The Longest Day" and the film based on it, as well as in Mr. Murphy's book, "No Better Place to Die."

Mr. Murphy, who retired from the Army as a highly decorated colonel and became a Boston lawyer and state assistant attorney general, died of cancer at Cape Cod Hospital on Oct. 3. He was 83 and had lived in South Dennis and Bonita Springs, Fla.

He began making annual visits on D-Day to Sainte-Mhre-Eglise in the early 1960s, his family said, and made his last trip there in June.

Until 10 years ago, he made parachute jumps into the town with other veterans, Nightingale said.

A Frenchman, Yves Tarriel, and Mr. Murphy had organized a campaign to raise money for a C-47 aircraft, the type the paratroopers used on D-Day. The plane is now in front of the Airborne Troops Museum, which Mr. Murphy helped start in Sainte-Mhre-Eglise.

"Sainte-Mhre-Eglise was the first town liberated by the United States on D-Day, and those who lived there never forgot what Bob and other veterans did for them," Nightingale said. "Bob kept going back there to keep what happened alive, and he would talk about it to the town's schoolchildren."

Last Sunday, Nightingale said, the town of about 2,000 turned out for a funeral Mass for Mr. Murphy. There, Nightingale said, "D-Day is still a current event. Bob was an icon there, the keeper of the flame."

There are different published accounts of Mr. Murphy's D-Day parachute jump into town. His sister, Virginia Healy, of Roslindale, the Boston neighborhood where they grew up, said one has him landing in a garden and surprising a woman who lived there. He shushed her "by pressing a finger to his lips."

The Boston Globe in 1994, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day, reported that Mr. Murphy had landed "into the rescuing limbs of a huge, sprawling chestnut tree within the walled courtyard" of schoolteacher Madame Angele Levrault.

Those stories were rejected by Nightingale. Whatever the story, there was no doubt of Mr. Murphy's heroism and the mutual love between him and Sainte-Mhre-Eglise residents.

Robert M. Murphy was born in Boston. He was a star athlete in high school and "broke all track records," his sister said. He left before graduating to join the Army in 1942.

Mr. Murphy was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. Before D-Day, Mr. Murphy had fought in Italy, the Netherlands and Africa.

His injuries and heroism earned him three Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Honor.

After his return to civilian life, Mr. Murphy studied law at Suffolk University and graduated in 1950. He did postgraduate study at Harvard University. In Boston, he practiced law with the firm of Murphy and Murphy.

He was a state assistant attorney general from 1980 to 1991.

Mr. Murphy's first wife, Joanne, died in 1962 after 16 years of marriage. His second, Barbara, died in 2002 after 35 years of marriage.

Besides his sister, Mr. Murphy leaves a son and daughter, four stepchildren; his companion, Gloria O'Brien; numerous grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.