Burial Slated Friday For Former Paratrooper
Cleburne, Texas, Aug. 29 - Funeral services will be conducted here Friday
for Pfc. Boyd Baker, who died Aug. 1 in Frankfurt, Germany, of
accidental gunshot wounds received June 24. Burial will be in the
Cleburne cemetery. Pfc. Baker served for three years as a paratrooper
during the war and received his discharge. He re-enlisted in the Army in
March and was sent to Germany.
Survivors include his wife (Madeline Beulah Obannon) and a son, Billy
(William Boyd Baker), Cleburne, and his father, C. Harold Baker,
Roswell, N. M.
[Dallas Morning News, August 30, 1946]
[courtesy of "Devas daughter"
Application for a rave marker and the resulting marker for Boyd E. H. Baker in
Plot 3-21 of the Cleburne Memorial Cemetery, Cleburne (Johnson county),
Texas. |
Boyd
was born in Menard (Menard county), TX on 22 October 1918.
Confusion over his second middle name began from the outset.
Apparently taken from his father's own middle name of "Hurrell," it was
written poorly here and misinterpreted as "Harrell" by some and even
appears as 'Harold" on a few records.
Boyd was inducted into the Army in Dallas, TX on 19 May 1943.
Following the completion of basic and jump school, he departed the U.S.
on a troop ship, arriving in the ETO on 31 May 1944 where he was
assigned to the First Airborne Task Force. 596th Airborne Engineering
Company.
Pfc Baker saw action during the Rome-Arno, Southern France, Ardennes and
Rhineland campaign. He was wounded in action and received the
Purple heart which was awarded at Co 1, 77th Evacuation Hospital, APO
350.
He returned to U.S on a troop ship, arriving. on 27 November
1945. He was discharged at the separation center in Fort Sam
Houston, TX on 4 December 1945.
He was married to Madeline [nee?] Baker in Johnson county, TX 4
March 1946 before re-enlisting in the army, again at Dallas. TX, two
weeks later on 20 March at which time he had to revert to the grade of
Private.
He was sent back to Germany where he was assigned to Co F, 508th
PIR.
Once again a Pfc, he was struck by accidental gunfire on 24 June and
succumbed to his wounds on August 1, 1946. |