SSG John Burwell Schenk was born 13 Nov 1916 in Bedford, Virginia to George Winston and Bessie Buford (Kasey) Schenk. His mother died of "pillagra" less than 8 months later. His father owned and operated a laundry. About 1925 his father married Rosa Belle Lewis, a school teacher. This may have later influenced his oldest sister, Mary, to attend the State Teachers College in Harrisonburg, now James Madison University. John soon had 2 more sisters in addition to the 2 sisters and 1 brother by his father's first wife. By 1930 his father was a foreman on "the railroad". In 1940 his father was Superintendent of a CCC Camp and he was a bookkeeper for a garage with an income of $420 for 1939.
This may be part of what motivated John to enlist in the National Guard, joining the local A Company 116th Infantry. He was with the unit when it was federalized in February 1941 and later, when it went to England to prepare for the invasion of "Hitler's" Europe. Before the unit left the United States he married Ivylyn Camack Jordan, a teacher, on 24 Aug 1942. He was with A Company on 6 Jun 1944, D-Day, when he was killed in action.
His step-mother Rosa is the next-of-kin on the internment record for the Normandy American Cemetery where he was buried. Ivylyn remarried in 1946.
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