Schömbs Family Authors

This page deals with books written in the recent past by Schömbs cousins. If you know of others, or would like to see included books from prior generations, please click on the Contact link in the navigation bar and tell us. We would like to include all.

Also, if you are unable to locate a copy of one of these books (at a reasonable price), send an email. Perhaps I can assist.

France

Muriel Lefaucheux

Muriel has published several books. They are highly artistic and imaginative, often including the photographic work of her daughter Cecile Decornique. They include "Créatures Imaginaires", "Enchanteresses", "Magie Verte" and "Magie Boisée". They are in French.

United States

Storming Ashore
by Ken Garn (descendant of Johann Schembs I (Schambs), 1852 emigrant)
published 1998

Ken Garn fought in World War II. He was in the First Engineer Special Brigade which was in the first wave of the landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and finally Normandy on D-Day. His first book, Storming Ashore, was published in 1998 and gives his personal experiences at Normandy and the months following.

A gripping story of and by a living example of the "Greatest Generation". As an Air Force officer who flew bombing missions over Europe in World War II, I take my hat off to Ken Garn who stormed ashore in the greatest and possibly the most dangerous invasion of all time. Comment by Joshua T. Winstead, Jr Colonel USAF (Ret.)

The Secret D-Day
by Ken Garn (descendant of Johann Schembs I (Schambs), 1852 emigrant)
published about 2003

This is the story of a terrible tragedy that befell American soldiers and sailors just before D-Day in 1944. A convoy of LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) was making a practice invasion on Slapton Sands in England when it was attacked by German E-boats. Author Kenneth H. Garn and his squad, part of a defense platoon in Headquarters Company, Second Battalion of the 531st Engineer Shore Regiment, were stationed above the cliffs of Devon in preparation for a simulated assault landing. Little did they know that they were going to be witnesses from a distant vantage point of a sea battle that would be kept secret from the fighting men as well as the general public. Now many WWII documents, including those that relate to this event, have been declassified and are available for research.

Losing my Mind: Surviving a Stroke
by James M. Schombs (descendant of Henry Schömbs, 1853 emigrant)
published 2005

Schombs went from being a thirty-seven-year-old strong, healthy U.S. Navy SEAL to suffering a massive, right-side thalamic stroke that totally shut down his left side as if a switch was turned off! The day before the stroke he had done a five-mile soft-sand run on the beach. He had completed eighteen years of active duty service and could not believe that this could happen to him. He had been around the world at least seven times in either real missions or training missions. He had had a great experience with the SEAL teams and realized that what lay ahead of him and his recovery would be the most difficult task that could be imagined! He hopes that this book will motivate and inspire others that have suffered life-altering events to work and fight hard to live life with family and friends! Life is too short to let it go by you. "Drive on."

Mary of the Angels Chapel: God's Answer to a Bold Promise
by Sister Malinda Gerke (descendant of Wolfgang Ernst Münzenberger, 1847 emigrant)
published 2017

Sister Malinda is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She first saw the Chapel as a 14-year old. And has been enthralled by it for seventy years. Her book includes literally hundreds of beautiful photographs of the Chapel.

The Chapel with its Romanesque architecture was consecrated in 1906 and considered to be one of the finest of its kind in the world!