Local address: County Road (present-day Cliffwood Avenue vicinity), Cliffwood, Matawan Township, NJ.
Francis Joseph Grande was born on July 24, 1918, in Cliffwood, the fifth of seven children born to Italian immigrants Giovanni “John” Antonio Grande (1874-1938) and Agnes Elizabeth Grande (1884-1961), both natives of Armento, Italy. The Grande family became well known in the Cliffwood section of Matawan Township, where John Grande operated a business before his untimely death.
Tragedy struck the family on October 22, 1938, when Francis’ father was fatally struck by an automobile while walking with companions to Keyport. According to newspaper accounts, sixty-five-year-old John Grande hesitated while crossing Cliffwood Avenue near Rose’s Lane and was struck by an approaching vehicle. He died at the scene from a fractured skull and internal injuries, leaving his wife to raise their seven children. The accident was widely reported throughout Monmouth County.
Francis attended the Cliffwood School and became the first registrant from Matawan Township called for Selective Service training in 1940. He trained first at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and later at Fort McClellan, Alabama. While preparing for additional training, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor transformed the nation’s peacetime draft into full wartime mobilization.
Following service in San Francisco and Hawaii, Private First Class Grande deployed with his infantry unit, the 165th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division, to Okinawa on April 9, 1945, during one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific War. He was killed in action on May 4, 1945, at just twenty-six years of age, only weeks before the end of the war in Europe and a few months before Japan’s surrender.
Following the war, PFC Grande’s remains were returned to New Jersey. Reinterment services were held on March 17, 1949, at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Keyport. A firing squad and bugler from Fort Monmouth rendered military honors at the graveside, while members of Raritan Post 23 of the American Legion served as color guard and pallbearers.
PFC Grande was survived by his mother, Agnes, three sisters—Lucy Tomasiello, Rose Barbetta, and Stella Rosato—and three brothers, John, Peter, and Vito. His sacrifice came less than seven years after the sudden death of his father, leaving the Grande family to endure the loss of two generations in a remarkably short period. Today, Francis Joseph Grande is remembered among the Matawan area’s young men who gave their lives during World War II in service to their country.
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