Louis Marius Prevost was born on July 28, 1920, in Chicago. After graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in November 1943 and became second in command of a tank landing ship.
He took part in the Normandy landing (France), on 6 June 1944, as part of theOperation Overlord. He also commanded an infantry landing craft, used by the Allies to land soldiers and marines on beaches during the conflict.
Because the Normandy coast lacked the port capacity to support the enormous quantities of materials required to maintain the momentum of the Allied forces, the Navy sent Prevost and other landing ships to southern France as part of theOperation Dragoon, launched on August 15, 1944.
This maneuver forced the Germans to defend a second front, reducing their overall effectiveness.
By the end of August, the Allies had captured the French ports of Marseille and Toulon, immediately using them to land supplies and equipment. By October 1944, more than a third of Allied cargo was passing through those ports.
Prevost spent 15 months overseas and rose to the rank of lieutenant before the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945.
After returning home, he became superintendent of Brookwood School District 167, an elementary school district in Glenwood, Illinois, and later elementary school principal. Mount Carmel of Chicago. He was also a catechist, or teacher of the principles of the Christian religion.
He married Mildred Agnes Martinez, a native of Chicago, on January 25, 1949. She worked as a librarian.
The couple had three sons: John Joseph Prevost, a retired educator living in Chicago; Louis Martin Prevost, a Navy veteran living in Florida; and the youngest, whose birth name is Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected the first American pope on May 8, 2025.
Mildred died on June 18, 1990, and Prevost died in Chicago on November 8, 1997.
Source: US DoD
