Many's the time that Melissa has regaled me with stories of her and her brother playing out in the field by their house: Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Spy vs. Spy. But more often than not they were playing Army and her brother was... Audie Murphy. Sure, there may have been a time or two when I was a kid, that I'd imagine holding the front lines for some kiddy version of the Battle of the Somme, but I can't remember ever knowing enough about American history to actually portray a real war hero by name!
And in Greenville, his boyhood home, you can find a great big statue of that hero.
For those not in the know (or those who didn't grow up in Melissa's family) Audie Murphy was a real life WWII hero, the most decorated of them all, who made his main claim to fame after the war to end all wars appearing in a laundry list of combat themed flicks filmed in the 50's & 60's. The real story of his military career is heart-renching and trumps any movies he made later on in spades. There's an official site from which you can learn more here.
Since Melissa's brother was invariably Audie, who was Melissa, you might ask? An original creation named "Big Lou Lou".
1 comment:
BTW - who names their kid "Audie"?
Post a Comment