Pvt. B. S. Landreth Arrives, Rites Held Tuesday

With Technical Sergeant Sterling P. Worden as a military escort, the body of Pvt. Benjamin S. Landreth, U. S. Army, who was killed in action on January 10, 1945, in the Battle of the Bulge, arrived in Galax, at the Vaughan-Guynn Funeral home, this afternoon.
   Pvt. Landreth, familiarly known to his friends, here before entering the service of his country as "Bennie," was a son of Andrew Landreth and wife, Mrs. Ollie Bowers Landreth who live just south of Galax. Had he lived until November 9, 1945, he would have been 19 years of age.
   The body was brought here, by motor hearse, from the Army's war dead distribution center in Charlotte, N. C.
   Pvt. Landreth entered the U.S. Army January 29, 1944, and received his Infantry basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, being transferred to a Paratrooper outfit, he also trained at Fort Benning, Ga. After going overseas he was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, known as the Daredevil Division.
   He was buried in the temporary American military cemetery at Henri Chapelle, Belgium.
   Surviving, besides the parents, are the following brothers and sisters: John M. Landreth, Clinton Charles Landreth and Herman Wesley Landreth, Galax, Mrs. Mae Combs, Johnson City, Tenn. Mrs. Pearl Marshall, Pulaski, Mrs. Edna Earls, Norfolk Mrs. Ethel Johnson, Wytheville, and Mrs. Pauline Chapman, Gate City, another son and another daughter, Buford and Viola Elizabeth, are also deceased.
   Funeral services are to be held Tuesday afternoon, at two o'clock, at the First Christian church, Galax, by the pastor Rev. William P. Taylor, Rev. L. D. Mayberry, pastor of the Blue Ridge Methodist circuit, and Rev. Lonnie P. Shaw, Galax. Interment will be in the Town cemetery, in Galax, east side.  Military rites will be conducted at the grave by Blue Ridge Post No. 145, American Legion.

[Galax Gazette, December 15, 1947]

Grave marker for Pvt Benjamin S. Landreth in the Galax City Cemetery, Galax (Galax City), Virginia.

Pvt Landreth was transferred from the 82nd Airborne Division Headquarters to Service Company, 508th PIR on 3 October 1944.  He was subsequently transferred to Company D on 22 November 1944.

Pvt Landreth was killed in action on 10 January 1945.  He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman Badge.