Audie Murphy: A Texas Legend

If you are ever in Greenville during your next road trip, I would highly recommend visiting the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum. I was thoroughly impressed at the generous hospitality I received from the staff members there (and I was the only visitor in the museum for a majority of my visit) and the fine exhibits the museum had to offer. Today, I will be writing about the Texas war hero whose name famously graces part of the museum's title as well as my trip to this special historical gem in Northeast Texas.

A large, ten-foot bronze statue of Audie Murphy is located at the front of the museum. The statue was sculptured by Greenville artist Gordon Thomas. Also, there is a handsome war memorial, recognizing the 271 Hunt County soldiers who gave their lives to defend American liberties in wars in the twentieth century. Audie once stated that, "The true heroes, the real heroes, are the boys who fought and died, and never will come home."

Audie Murphy was a true Texan hero. He was born in the rural community of Kingston, about 10 miles north of Greenville, on June 20, 1925. His parents, Emmett Berry Murphy and Josie Bell Murphy, were sharecroppers and worked hard every day to earn little money for their budding family of twelve children. At one point, life was financially rough and the family had to live in a converted railroad box car for several months. Although he grew up with many siblings, young Audie was a loner and experienced frequent mood swings and explosive tempers. Unfortunately, Audie was never taught how to become a confident, polite young man since his father suddenly deserted the family a few years after his birth. Audie then dropped out of school in the fifth grade (his favorite subjects included writing, numbers, and art) and worked various jobs in the 1930s and early 1940s, including picking cotton for a dollar coin a day, attending the front desk at a radio repair shop and general store, and repairing vehicles at a gas station in Greenville. Audie also found out that he was an expert marksman and further honed his skills with the rifle by hunting small game and helping his mother find food for the dinner table. Another tragedy struck the Murphy family in 1941 when Josie Bell abruptly died of endocarditis and pneumonia. This event devastated the young boy; Audie would later recall the depressing loss: "She died when I was sixteen. She had the most beautiful hair I've ever seen. It reached almost to the floor. She rarely talked; and always seemed to be searching for something. What it was I don't know. We didn't discuss our feelings. But when she passed away, she took something of me with her. It seems I've been searching for it ever since." 

The museum had an impressive exhibit on trench warfare during World War I, including a life-size rendition of a trench!

Audie admired the military and when most of the world was gearing up for war in the late 1930s, his goals to become a decorated soldier intensified. Following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Audie jumped at the opportunity to enlist, but the Army, Navy and Marine Corps all turned him down for being too underweight and underage. Audie asked his older sister Corinne to help and with an affidavit that falsified his birth date by a year, Audie was finally accepted by the Army on June 30, 1942. He enlisted at the former Post Office in Greenville. He completed his basic training at Camp Wolters in Central Texas and Fort Meade in Maryland. Audie's superior skills with the rifle impressed several officers, who awarded the young solder with the Marksman Badge with a Rifle Component Bar and the Expert Badge with a Bayonet Component Bar. Audie's first look at the bloody action of World War II occurred in Sicily in July 1943. When the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, under the command of hotheaded Major General Lucian Truscott, landed on the southern coast of Sicily, Audie, a division runner in the unit, killed two fleeting Italian officers. Audie, then a newly-promoted corporal, participated in a mainland assault at Battipaglia in September 1943. He killed five Germans with hand grenades and machine gun fire when Audie and two other American soldiers were ambushed, and followed with repelling an attack by seven Germans during a surprise attack on the Volturno Defensive Line. The Texan was recognized for his bravery and promoted to sergeant on December 13, 1943. Following another promotion to staff sergeant, Audie was hospitalized in Naples with Malaria in January 1944, however, returned to the battlefield he had craved for at the First Battle of Cisterna at the start of February. While taking shelter from inclement weather in an abandoned barn, Audie led his platoon on an assault against a passing German tank. He then crawled close enough to destroy the tank with rifle grenades, an tactical move that later earned him the Bronze Star. Audie continued to make scouting patrols in Italy and acquire medals for bravery until the American Army liberated Rome on June 4, 1944, ending the bloody fighting in the Mediterranean Theater.

The Ende-Gillard House is located on the property. This residence, which was not open to visitors, was built between 1857 and 1859, and is currently the oldest standing house in Greenville.

Audie was a decorated officer in the Army when he was stationed in southern France to fight in the European Theater during the last year of the war. He partook in the Allied invasion on Yellow Beach near Ramatuelle (southern France), where he advanced alone on a German hide-out and killed six, wounded two, and took 11 enemies prisoner. In the French countryside, Audie attacked German sniper groups and machine gun posts under heavy fire; he was awarded his first Purple Heart (out of 3 total) and two Silver Stars. Audie was also injured at this time and had partial loss of his hip muscle after a German sniper snagged his leg. Audie's moment of fame occurred at the start of 1945 when his crew were forced to abandon their M10 tank destroyer after the Germans had set it on fire. Audie, determined to get the upper hand and win the battle, stuck to his post, faced the flames, mounted the burning tank and began firing the .50 caliber machine gun at advancing Germans. He killed or wounded 50 Germans. For his actions that day, Audie was awarded the Medal of Honor (at age 19!), the highest military award given to a soldier in the United States Armed Forces. On February 16, 1945, Audie was promoted to the first lieutenant rank, and spent the rest of the war in the Regimental Headquarters as a liaison officer. Audie became one of the most decorated soldiers in World War II and U.S. history, receiving every U.S. military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army.

Audie in uniform, 1943. His unit was first shipped to the Mediterranean Theater on the USAT Hawaiian Shipper, a voyage which took eleven days. One of his comrades, Corliss Rowe, noted that Audie was sitting on his foot locker, "Look[ing] no bigger than a guinea [hen] and was skinny and pale, like he suffered from malnutrition." However, Rowe's ugly first impression of Audie changed when he saw the Texan in action with a rifle.

Following the end of World War II in August 1945, Audie reported to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio as a commissioned captain in the 36th Infantry Division of the Texas Army National Guard. Back at home, he was treated to lavish homecoming parades and banquets. He gave many speeches to local organizations. He was discharged from the Army on September 21, 1945. Although life for Audie after the global war appeared to be fantastic, the former serviceman was plagued with post traumatic stress disorder (many other veterans also faced this challenge, known then as "battle fatigue"), and slept with a loaded handgun under his pillow. The PTSD continued to get worse until his untimely death; he looked for solace in addictive sleeping pills. At one point, Audie locked himself in a hotel room for a week to fight off his addiction with the sedative Placidyl (which worked). Audie's erratic behavior shocked close friends and family. Audie's first wife, Dixie Wanda Hendrix claimed her husband once held her at gunpoint after a long, heated argument. Moreover, Audie reportedly wept uncontrollably after watching video reels of German orphans after the war. In an effort to calm his nerves and explain his difficulties to the world, Audie began making emotional speeches about PTSD to large local groups in the late 1940s, educating the public on the "shell shock" soldiers faced when they returned to normalcy after fighting. Audie refused to partake in alcohol and cigarette commercials in later life, citing he did not want to set a bad example. Moreover, Audie had a gambling issue after the war, investing large sums of money in horse races (he bred and owned several horses at ranches in California and Arizona). In 1968, a few years before his death, Audie lost $260,000 in an Algerian oil deal and was under investigation with the IRS regarding unpaid taxes.

Audie receiving his first military combat decoration, 1943

Audie married his second wife, Pamela Opal Lee Archer, a former airline stewardess, in 1951 after a bitter divorce from his first wife Dixie (who he married in 1949). It was during this time when Audie made a name for himself as a movie star (and might I add, heart throb) in Hollywood, starring in various movies produced by Universal Studios-- the studios offered the war hero a seven-year contract at $2,500 per week that the youngling could not refuse. Audie starred in Bad Boy (1949), The Kid From Texas (1950), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Destry (1954), The Quiet American (1958), 40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967), and many more motion-picture flicks and several television episodes. Audie frequently collaborated with Estelle Harman, an acting coach and Head of Talent at Universal Studios, and honed his diction (and slightly altered his wild Texas country accent) by reciting dialogue from William Shakespeare and William Saroyan. Audie became a household name in Hollywood and throughout the United States, often attracting a group of photographers, reporters, and flirty young girls wherever he went. His last film to appear in was A Time For Dying in 1969 (as a cameo). An explosive, moody, and successful life was cut short when Audie Murphy died in a private plane crash in Virginia on May 28, 1971. The plane had lost control in the rain, clouds, mist, and fog; it was recovered three days later. Audie was 45 and left behind a widow and two children. A court awarded Audie's grieving family $2.5 million in damages because of the accident in 1975. A nation, who celebrated Audie's bravery during a global conflict and then admired his charisma on the big screen, mourned the loss of an distinguished icon.

Audie Murphy's impressive medal collection (imagine wearing all of those!).

Audie Murphy was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. on June 7, 1971. His burial was attended by many dignitaries, including then-U.N. Ambassador George H. W. Bush and Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland. Today, Audie's grave is the second most-visited grave in the famous cemetery, after that of President John F. Kennedy. Honors continued to be bestowed upon Audie after his death; the late war hero was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor. In sum, Audie Murphy, an ambitious and moody teenager from the Northeast Texas plains rose above the challenges in life and exhibited a great degree of patriotism in the face of danger. He was a movie celebrity, war hero, and a treasured icon of the Lone Star State, and will always be part of the larger Texas story.

Following the German defeat in World War II, Audie was a hotshot and heart throb. He was featured in Life Magazine on July 16, 1945. 

Despite the importance of Audie Murphy at the museum in Greenville, there are also fantastically detailed exhibits on other World War II veterans hailing from Hunt County, as well as information on public education, culture, and lifestyles in the Northeast Texas region from the 1840s to the present. Furthermore, the museum boasts an array of old road vehicles and cotton compress engines (did you know that Greenville was home to the world's largest inland cotton compress, which set world records in 1911 and 1912; in just one 10 hour day, the powerful engine was able to compress 2,073 bales of cotton!). The museum was phenomenal, and when I next have time in my busy schedule I will swing by and discover more secrets about Audie Murphy and the City of Greenville.

There were exhibits on public education in Hunt County at the museum. Above is a photograph of Delaney Hall, one of the residence halls at Wesley College. Greenville was home to two junior colleges at the start of the twentieth century, Burleson and Wesley Colleges. I have written two articles on these colleges for Texas Escapes Magazine.

The museum had a terrific exhibit on the role of cotton in Greenville and Northeast Texas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mr. W.R. Wilson was the biggest cotton broker in Greenville; he had an office on Lee Street between 1930 and 1980. He was a member of the Houston, Dallas, Memphis, and New York Cotton Exchanges. Mr. Wilson also traveled Europe extensively.

The movie poster for To Hell And Back, a 1955 flick on Audie's rise to military fame. The film was based on the veteran's autobiography and starred Audie in the leading role.

The world mourned when Audie Murphy died. This cartoon appeared in the Dallas Morning News.

Cowboy Audie Murphy in one of his many films following the war.