News

Remains of missing WWII Marine Luther Rhodes return home after more than 80 years

A squadron of Marines move the flag-draped coffin carrying the remains of World War II veteran Luther Rhodes from a Delta Airlines flight to Jackson Funeral Home’s waiting hearse.

By Amy McCraw, Published: March 24, 2026

With a brother and extended family he never knew looking on, the remains of World War II veteran Luther Rhodes returned to Henderson County Tuesday, more than 80 years after he died fighting the Japanese during the battle for Guadalcanal.

“It’s a miracle he was found,” Marvin Rhodes said with tears in his eyes shortly after two Marines escorted the flag-draped coffin carrying his brother’s remains from a hearse and into Jackson Funeral home in Hendersonville.
Rhodes, his wife, Barbara, their children and about 20 other family members also stood on the tarmac at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport earlier Tuesday and watched as a squadron of Marines moved the coffin from a Delta Airlines flight to the funeral home’s hearse. Inside the airport, passengers waiting for their flights stood silently as they watched the transfer through the airport’s windows. Some recorded the event on their cell phones.
Hendersonville Police Department officers escorted the hearse and family members from the airport. Police and Henderson County Sheriff’s Department officers on motorcycles also escorted the hearse to the funeral home.
Marvin and Barbara Rhodes said the day was both emotional and rewarding.
“It was just a thrill to see him come off the plane,” Barbara said as she too began to cry shortly after the coffin was moved into the funeral home.
Marvin never knew his brother, Luther.
Luther was the fourth child in a family of 10 siblings - five boys and five girls – who grew up in Edneyville.
Marvin was the baby of the family and not yet born when Luther, at the
age of 17, persuaded his father to sign for him to join the U.S. Marine Corps on Nov. 11, 1941.
Luther Leru “Dusty” Rhodes, also sometimes called “The Kid” by his fellow Marines, was a private first class when he was killed less than a year later on Oct. 7, 1942 while fighting in the battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The battle was America’s first offensive of the war in the Pacific.
Marvin was just six months old when his brother died.
Luther’s body was buried in a makeshift cemetery on Guadalcanal shortly after his death. But by the time the military began sending those soldiers home for burial, Luther Rhodes’ remains were no longer identifiable and listed as unknown.
Bodies of the unknown soldiers buried on Guadalcanal were later removed and buried at The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. The cemetery, known as the Punchbowl, is in an extinct volcano near the center of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rhodes’ body remained the at the cemetery until 2019 when advances in DNA technology made officials at the government’s Defense Pow/Mia Accounting Agency believe they could identify some of the remains of the Marines who were moved to the cemetery from Guadalcanal.
Marvin Rhodes had provided the DPAA with a sample of his DNA years earlier but had given up hope a few years ago that his brother’s remains would ever be found.
Not too long after Marvin gave up on locating his brother’s remains, leaders at Hendersonville’s Hedrick-Rhodes VFW Post 5206 decided to take on an effort to locate the 13 soldiers from Henderson County who were missing in action during World War II.
Luther Rhodes was the first MIA they decided to try to locate.
Leaders at the VFW contacted U.S. Senator Tedd Budd’s office, where a distant relative of Rhodes happened to work on staff, and asked for help. In September, shortly after Budd’s office became involved, Marvin received the call telling him his brother’s remains were found.
Luther Rhodes will be buried on Saturday near other members of his family in the cemetery at Edneyville United Methodist Church.