Audie Murphy/Cotton Museum is in Greenville, TX (east of Dallas on I-30).
https://cottonmuseum.com/
Born in Kingston, TX.
Grew up in Farmersville, Greenville, and Celeste in northeast of Dallas.
7th of 12 kids. Dropped out in the 5th grade.
Enlisted at age 17 in the Army after being turned down by the Navy and Marines for being underage and underweight.
Thanks for posting. He was an amazing man. I remember hearing about him in the 50s when I was a kid. I don’t think I’ve ever watched “To Hell and Back”.
*facepalm*
Good article otherwise. ;-)
Never tire of that story no matter how many times i hear it.
I walked that ground 7-8 years ago. He was up against a platoon of Jagdpanthers, turretless Panther tank destroyers with 88mm guns. He basically single-handedly (with arty support) stripped off their infantry support, and the armor was afraid to overrun him in the woods, worried about satchel charges and such. They didn’t know he was essentially alone just inside the tree line.
I loved, still love Little Texas.
‘To Hell and Back’
.
We Are a Warrior Breed.
80 YEAR AGO TODAY! HOW THE F-ING HELL IS THIS NOT ***THE*** NATIONAL NEWS STORY IN AMERICA? The media are disgraceful pigs.
Thanks for posting! If I were king, I’d make this Audie Murphy Day and every kid would grow up learning about him.
He was my favorite Western movie star, by far.
He grew up really poor. He had to hunt rabbits and squirrels and the like to feed himself and his siblings. That’s how he became such a deadly shot. That’s also why he was so underweight the Marines rejected him. He was only 5’5 and 112 pounds. The Army put a few pounds on him but he was still a thin little fellow. You look at that baby face and can hardly believe what a stone cold killer he was on the battlefield but that chest full of medals attests to the fact that he was quite a fierce warrior.
Great story - thanks for posting.
one doesn’t win a silver star...
Bless his heart. He was a tortured soul. He bore guilt from the men he killed. Never mind that the men he killed were killed while they were trying to kill the men under Audie’s command.
I was such an Audie Murphy fan growing up that I just knew someday I would have a chance to meet him. I remember the day he died, my Mother In Law made a special trip to my house and said “Sit down, I have some really bad news”. It kind of felt like the earth was off kilter for a while.
Twenty-year-old Audie Murphy came home from the war with a Medal of Honor, a Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Stars, a Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Stars (1 with “V” device), 3 Purple Hearts, a French Legion of Honour, a French Croix de Guerre with silver star, three French Croix de Guerre with palm, and a Belgian Croix de Guerre with palm.
But if this were to happen today, he would be too young to buy a rifle or shotgun in four states (and DC), or a handgun in 11 states (and DC).
bfl
I’ll never forget a visit to Arlington cemetery years ago and in a walk-through noted a simple cross like thosands of others, but this gravesite was loaded with wreaths and flowers. I inspected the site and there I noted the name: Audie Murphy.
I went to the Audie Murphy museum near Sulphur Springs a few years ago. It was amazing.
Unfortunately, it’s small and coupled with a cotton museum, believe it or not.
I think he deserves a little more than that, but it was a fantastic thing to visit.
<>after being turned down by the Navy and Marines for being underage and underweight.<>
We can hardly comprehend the widespread malnutrition of the Depression era.