Onda Murphy

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Entered: October 20, 1942 U. S. Army

Trained: Camp Wheeler, Ga.

Embarkation: April 1943

Served European Theater

Served 20 mos. KIA June 6 1944

 

PFC Onda Murphy

Son of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Murphy  Van Lear

KIA France D-Day June 6, 1944

ONDA MURPHY
BODIES OF TWO ARRIVE FROM OVERSEAS MONDAY
Parallel In Lives Of Soldiers Ends In Final Rites

 

The bodies of two Johnson County boys who left Paintsville in the same draft call, who spent their entire service in the Army together and were killed in action on D-Day, June 6, 1944, were returned Monday for re-burial in their family cemeteries.  The bodies were returned from the same overseas cemetery. They are Pfc. Onda Murphy, 28, son of Mr. And Mrs. Everett Murphy of Van Lear and Pfc. Curtis Burchett, 22, son of Mr. And Mrs. Willie Burchett of Stambaugh. Funeral services were held for Pfc. Murphy on December 16 in the Christian Church at Meally by the Rev. S. C. Honeycutt and burial was made in the family cemetery near the church. Services were held for Pfc. Burchett at the Beach Grove Baptist Church at Pippa on December 17 by Rev. F. F. Riggsby and Rev. Cully Sparks.  Burial was made in the family cemetery near the home.

 

©Paintsville Herald
Wednesday
December 18, 1947

 

 

 
PFC. ONDA MURPHY

 

    Pfc. Onda Murphy entered the service November 3, 1942, and was killed in action in France on D- Day, June 6.  He was in the North African and Sicilian invasion with his buddy, Curtis Burchett, Stambaugh who was also killed on June 6. Pfc.

    Murphy was the son of Mr. And Mrs. Everett Murphy, of Van Lear.  He attended Van Lear High School and was popular with his classmates.  He was farming when he entered the service at the age of 26.  A few weeks after joining the armed forces he underwent a serious operation at an army hospital in Georgia.  He was shipped overseas early in 1943 without ever coming home on furlough.

    Pfc. Murphy is survived by his four brothers, Albert, Lawrence, Herschell and Glen, all of Van Lear and five sisters, Mrs. Frank Stambaugh, Mrs. Roy Brown, Myrtle, and Josephine and Minerva Ellen, and grandfather, George Powers of Meally. He fought in the last hour of need for his country.

 

©Paintsville Herald
Wednesday
August 17, 1944