Editing Lucien Conein (section)

==Personal Life==
Conein was born in Paris, France, to Lucien Xavier Conein and Estelle Elin at the end of World War I. At age five, after his father’s death, his widowed mother sent him to Kansas City, Missouri, to live with his aunt, a French war bride married to a U.S. soldier. He attended Wyandotte High School but dropped out after his junior year. In 1939, at the onset of World War II, the 20-year-old joined the French Army, claiming later—likely with his noted flair for exaggeration—that it was the French Foreign Legion. Following France’s fall to Nazi Germany in 1940, he switched to the U.S. Army. As a native French speaker, he volunteered for the OSS, the wartime precursor to the CIA.

Conein married three times, with his third wife, Elyette B. Conein, in 1957, bearing three children: Cecil, Serge, and Bernard. He had additional children from earlier marriages, leaving six sons, one daughter, 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild at his death. 

Known for his colorful storytelling, often shared over wine and pear brandy, Conein’s tales blended fact and exaggeration, leading Karnow to abandon a planned biography. He died of a heart attack at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on June 3, 1998, at age 78. His funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on July 14, 1998, marked the end of an era for OSS and CIA operatives, with attendees recounting his exploits, including his popularity in St. Tropez during its liberation.