1SG Edward Downey Walton

 

1SG Edward Downey Walton was born 30 Oct 1916 in Roanoke, Virginia. He was the oldest of the 2 children born to Edgar Downey and Geneva Bethel (Leslie) Walton. His father was working as a grocery clerk to support the family. His younger sister was born in February 1919 but she died of diptheria in October 1922. More tragedy followed the family when his mother died of septicemia from a cut on her hand in October 1923 and his father died 11 days later of lobar pneumonia. Edward was just 7 years old when he he went to live permanently with his paternal grandparents, John William and Clara Maude (Jennings) Walton. His grandfather worked as a boiler maker for the Norfolk and Western Rail Road in Roanoke. Edward lived with them at the home they owned at 314 12th Street in Roanoke. By 1940 Edward was supporting the family working as a sales clerk in a drug store owned by C. C. Jacobs at 11 Franklin Road earning $1300 in 1939. Edward had only 2-years of high school, probably leaving school to work when his grandfather no longer could. 

He was drafted in May 1941. This was shortly after the local National Guard unit had been federalized and sent to Fort George Meade, Maryland and he would have been sent there too. Once there he was assigned to D Company 116th Infantry. Like many other soldiers Edward was married during this time marrying Lois Jemima Campbell on 22 Dec 1941. He would have trained with the unit at Fort Meade, in the Carolina Maneuvers near Fort Bragg and at Camp Blanding, Florida. He then shipped out for England with his unit in September 1942 and once there trained for the planned amphibious assault in support of the liberation of occupied France. Certainly an asset to his unit, he had been promoted to SSG before D-Day in which he participated. SSG Walton was promoted to 1SG on 20 Jun 1944 and replaced 1SG James Harvey Rudolph "Rudy" Obenshain who had been killed in action on D-Day. 1SG Walton was himself killed in action when he was shot in chest near Saint-Lo, France on 15 Jul 1944. 

1SG Walton was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. 

Edward and Lois had no children.