Ray Booher was born 21 September 1920 in Burkesville Kentucky. He was the son of Jim and Ada Booher.  He had a twin brother Roy, five other brothers and six sisters.  He grew  up on a farm in south-central Kentucky.  Ray and his twin borther Roy moved to Anaheim, California in 1940.  Both joined the Army at the outbreak of the War.  (Two other Booher brothers joined the US Navy.)  They served together in the 30th Infantry Division, but in different Regiments with Roy belonging to the 119th and Ray belonging to the 120th.  They shipped to England in June of 1944.

On 12 September 1944, Roy’s Regiment crossed the Albert Canal and the Meuse River and headed north toward the Netherlands.  When they came to the town of Noorbeek in the Netherlands, a Dutch citizen warned the unit that there were Germans ahead, and Roy was sent to look for them.  While he was doing so, he was shot by a German on his right-hand side and died.  Roy Booher was the first American soldier to be killed during the liberation of The Netherlands. A newspaper article from that time period falsely stated that he was killed in Belgium.

This source of this information is Frank Gubbels and the website Bevrijding van Noorbeek http://12-09-1944.nl/index_en.php