Town to unveil likeness of hero
Posted on 06/21/2002 7:24:19 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Town to unveil likeness of hero
Murphy statue tribute to all Greenville vets
06/21/2002
The memory of Audie Murphy as a hometown war hero soon won't be the only thing about him that casts a shadow over Greenville.
Starting Saturday, Interstate 30 drivers passing through Greenville will spot a tall, bronze statue of Mr. Murphy, World War II's most decorated combat soldier and a movie star in the '50s and '60s.
The statue of Mr. Murphy who received the Medal of Honor and every decoration for valor the United States offered will be unveiled in a ceremony at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum in Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. The ceremony falls on Greenville's Audie Murphy Days, an annual Friday and Saturday celebration of Mr. Murphy's life that is scheduled close to his June 20 birthday.
"There's a patriotic feeling about a young man who did what he did in the war and was fighting for his country," said Leo Hackney, co-chair of Greenville's Sesquicentennial Committee. "It's amazing what he did."
The statue is the belated result of Greenville's sesquicentennial celebration in 2000, when leaders decided they wanted to build a lasting, meaningful symbol of Mr. Murphy and all Hunt County war veterans for generations to come.
"A hundred years from now ... they'll have some replica to look at that represents who came before them," said Jack Finney, co-chair of the Sesquicentennial Committee.
"We want our young people to know that people have sacrificed their lives so that you and I can be here and enjoy liberty."
The 10-foot statue, which rests on a five-foot granite base, depicts an actual war scene in France in 1945, where Mr. Murphy was personally credited with killing or wounding about 50 Germans and stopping an attack by enemy tanks
Mr. Murphy's figure is hunched over, with his right foot perched on a pile of rocks. The statue will be lighted at night and will be surrounded by three flagpoles bearing an American flag, a Texas flag and possibly a city flag, officials said.
Soon after the statue is unveiled, work will begin on a wall engraved with the names of all Hunt County veterans who died in all wars, said Greenville sculptor Gordon Thomas.
"This statue is supposed to be a tribute and memorial to all of our veterans who have served their country in that capacity," he said.
Mr. Thomas, a sculptor since 1980, already had been hoping to make a statue of Mr. Murphy when the Sesquicentennial Committee called and asked him to do just that. The committee soon raised the $100,000 needed for the project, which Mr. Thomas finished in April 2001.
The giant, white Sam Houston statue which greets traffic between Dallas and Houston near Huntsville, Texas sparked Mr. Hackney's inspiration for the Murphy statue, said the 82-year-old Hunt County native who served in the Navy during World War II.
Mr. Murphy was born in Kingston to sharecroppers, and lived and worked in Greenville as a young man. He took the oath of service in the basement of the old post office in Greenville before leaving to fight in Europe.
He received 33 awards for valor, even earning five decorations by France and Belgium for heroic fighting in nine major campaigns across Europe. When he returned to the United States, Mr. Murphy left for Hollywood and starred in 44 feature films, many of which were westerns. He also wrote poetry, several country songs and the biographical best seller To Hell and Back, published in 1949.
Mr. Murphy was 46 when he died on May 28, 1971, in a plane crash near Roanoke, Va. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full national honors.
Adrien Witkofsky, director of the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, said Mr. Murphy was always uncomfortable being called a hero.
"He said his buddies who didn't come back were the heroes," she said.
Kellie B. Gormly is a Dallas-based freelance writer.
Thanks, m@N, I appreciate you posting more of the story and for giving my sotted memory a jolt with the name of his auto-biographical movie. Started to watch it last year but other things took me away from it. Audie Murphy also starred in Shane, a classic western that ranks right up there with High Noon.
.30C, my love, maybe we can rent 'To Hell and Back' and watch it at your dads' sometime. Watching 'The Red Badge of Courage would be cool too.
Well, it's like a buddy of mine once said. It's not the bullet with your name on it that you have to worry about. It's all those bullets marked, "to whom it may concern."
In that sense, Murphy manning the machine gun on the burning tank destroyer was putting himself in a situation almost certain to get one of those anonymous missives. Set a tank on fire and it will blow up more often than not, and Murphy knew it. It was perhaps the most remarkable incident in a remarkable career.
Walt
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