Historical Figure
Audie Murphy
1925–1971
American soldier and actor (1925–1971)
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Biography
Audie Leon Murphy was an American soldier, actor, and songwriter. He was widely celebrated as the most decorated American combat soldier of World War II, and has been described as the most highly decorated enlisted soldier in U.S. history. He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor that he demonstrated at age 19 for single-handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, before leading a successful counterattack while wounded.
Timeline
The story of Audie Murphy, told in moments.
Born into a family of sharecroppers in Kingston, Texas. His father abandoned the family. His mother died when he was 16. He had nine siblings. He picked cotton and hunted to keep them fed.
Enlisted in the Army at 17 after being turned away by the Marines and paratroopers for being too small. He was 5'5" and 112 pounds. His sister had falsified his birth certificate to say he was 18.
Single-handedly held off an entire company of German soldiers near Holtzwihr, France, for an hour. He climbed onto a burning tank destroyer and fired its .50 caliber machine gun while wounded. He was 19. Earned the Medal of Honor.
Starred in his first Hollywood film. James Cagney had invited him to Hollywood after seeing his photo on the cover of Life magazine. Murphy made over 40 movies.
Killed in a plane crash in Virginia at 45. He'd struggled with PTSD for decades and spoke publicly about it when nobody else would. The most decorated American soldier of World War II.
In Their Own Words (1)
Artifacts (15)
The deacon's second wife .. (IA deaconssecondwif00abbo)
Abbott, Allan. [from old catalog]
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (IA upliftserial32151ston)
Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and Industrial School (Concord, N.C.)
The Journal v. 26, no. 41, October 9, 2014 (IA Journal100914)
U.S. Navy. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bethesda
Corps'pondent - USACE-p16021coll8-500
United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Portland District
The Journal v. 27, no. 31, August 6, 2015 (IA Journal080615)
U.S. Navy. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bethesda
The historical memoire of LeRoy and vicinity, November, 1904 (IA historicalmemoir00lero)
Leroy historical society, Leroy, Ill. [from old catalog]
NAVY MEDICINE Vol. 95, No. 1 January-February 2004 (IA NavyMedicineVol.95No.1January-february2004)
U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
They were in a dreadful condition, both of body and of mind
talozzi arrived. On 14 January 1799, a number of orphans came to the newly established institution. Pestalozzi wrote, "They were in a dreadful condition, both of body and of mind". He took many roles...
Scarcely any one has noticed the book, although it has been before the public fo...
e of Nature in the development of the Human Race. Few people read his work, and in an 1821 edition, Pestalozzi wrote: "Scarcely any one has noticed the book, although it has been before the public for...
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