Knight Rider News Service

Brownwood, TX Ñ Millions of pocketsize "New Testaments" were passed out to soldiers during World War II, but a special one surfaced recently in Brownwood.

After 47 years, it's a little dog-eared, but in good condition.

As best as anyone can figure, David D. Harris, Jr., of Brownwood lost it in 1944 near the battle of the bulge. An 11 year old Belgian boy, Jose Lowette found it shortly after the war and kept it all these years until he recently met two tourists from the United States. He asked them to find the owner and return it after they got back to the States.

Harris returned to Texas after the war and settled in Ft. Worth. He died in 1992 at age 72. "He probably never even knew he lost it," Loyce Williams, 71, his sister and only surviving sibling, said. She said he had never mentioned misplacing the Good Book.

But a couple weeks ago Williams received a phone call about that long ago and faraway place.

Williams said Lowette, now 68, found the little book in an abandoned tank when he was living in Wareme, Belgium. "Mr. Lowette said he kept the bible as a momento because the American soldiers were his heroes after they liberated his town," said Beverly Motley, Williams's daughter.

Lowette is involved in a cultural exchange organization in Fleron Belgium, which is a sister city to Jennings, LA, the hometown of sisters Lois Harpin and Dee Dee Stoute. It was through the cultural exchange that Harpin and Stoute found themselves staying in Lowette's home last summer.

"While we were there, he took it out and showed it to me. I looked and saw it was a soldier from Brownwood, Texas and Mr. Lowette asked if there was any way we could find this soldier or his family," Harpin said.

Harpin said that through several computer-aided searches, they found out Harris had died in Fort Worth, leaving no children.

"We didn't know if he had any descendents or family, but I figured we might find him through a notice in the newspaper in Brownwood," said Harpin. A little mention in the Brownwood Bulletin in September went unnoticed by Williams.

"But then a friend called and asked if I had seen the paper," said Williams, who called Hairpin the next day. "We decided to deliver it in person . . .. The entire experience was interesting and rewarding."

Williams said; "To me, it's unbelievable to know that after all these years, I have something that belonged to my brother when I was just 14 or 15-years-old."