PFC Audy F. Wade

PFC Audy F. Wade was born 22 Jun 1919 in Virginia. He was the 5th of 6 children born to Leonard Braxton and Hattie Lou (Cornett) Wade. His mother died of ptomaine poisoning in April 1927. His father re-married, this time to Hattie's younger and divorced sister, Josie Pearl (Cornett) Cox. The couple would have 3 more children. Leonard supported his family by farming, coal mining or working in saw mills in North Carolina and Virginia. The Great Depression was probably why many family members, including Audy, moved often in search for work even going to Baltimore, Maryland. In 1940 Audie was working on a farm to support himself and his wife and there is evidence that he also worked in a saw mill. 

Audy was drafted in February 1943 entering the service in Baltimore, Maryland according to military records. Soon after completing his basic military training PVT Wade was sent to England and assigned to B Company 116th Infantry. He trained with the unit as it prepared for the amphibious landing that was to take place on the French beach code-named Omaha. PFC Wade was with the unit for that landing as B Company landed on the beach immediately behind the devastated A Company 116th Infantry and suffered very nearly as badly from the German fire. He was reportedly wounded on D-Day, 6 Jun 1944 but continued to fight until wounded again on 7 Jun 1944 and evacuated to a field hospital and then to England. He had been shot in the hip and chest and did not return to the unit until he was transferred from the replacement on 5 Aug 1944. The unit was near Vire, France at the time and would then move with the regiment and division as it began the attack on German forces in Brest. PFC Wade was killed in action on 26 Aug 1944. 

PFC Wade was repatriated and re-interred in the Cornett Cemetery, a family cemetery in Ashe County, North Carolina. There is no stone marking his grave.