Birthplace of Audie Murphy

Which year was Audie Murphy born? His enlistment papers say 1924, and the Handbook of Texas and the plaque in Celeste follow them. This plaque says 1925. Wikipedia reports that his sister, Corinne Burns, signed a notarized statement giving June 20, 1924 so that he could meet the Army's age minimum. It adds that his biographer David A. Smith concluded from the statements of Murphy's co-author David McClure, a California driver's license and Murphy himself that 1925 is correct, and that Murphy went back and forth on the date.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Audie Murphy Born on a farm near Kingston, Audie Murphy (1925-1971) joined the army on his 17th birthday in 1942, and later became the most decorated soldier in WWII. He was awarded 24 citations for bravery in action, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm and the French Legion of Honor Chevalier. Upon his return to the United States, he began a career in film, starring in "The Kid from Texas," "The Red Badge of Courage" and his most successful film where he portrayed himself, "To Hell and Back." While on a business trip in 1971 Murphy's plane crashed and he was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. (1973, 2018)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 8.6 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 27 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 27 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Kingston Baptist Church — 1.2 mi
• White Rock Community — 3.6 mi
• Audie Murphy — 4.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of Celeste — 4.5 mi