PFC Sam J. Neighbors

courtesy of Memento Mori

PFC Sam J. Neighbors was born in 1919 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the youngest of 10 children born to Samuel Preston and Daisey Bell (Sandridge) Neighbors. His father worked in a tub factory, has hired help on a farm and in an ice factory. The family lived for many a years in a house at 255 Sixteenth Street in Kansas City for which they were paying $8 a month rent in 1940.

After being drafted, most likely in mid-1943, Sam completed his basic training and was sent to England where he was assigned to C Company 116th Infantry. He might have had only a couple of months to train with the unit before the amphibious landing at Omaha Beach on 6 Jun 1944. PFC Neighbors died of his wound(s) on 7 Jun 1944.

PFC Neighbors rests forever in the Normandy American Cemetery.

Brother, Solomon P. Neighbors, served as a PFC in the 282nd Quartermaster Company, 1942-1944. Grandfather, William Henry Neighbors, served as 1SG and 2LT in D Company 1st Regiment Missouri State Militia Cavalry.