PFC Ethel Dean Owens

courtesy of Frogman

PFC Ethel Dean Owens was born in 1916 in Johnson County, Arkansas. He was the 4th of 6 children born to Watt R. and Margaret Belle (Tatum) Owens. His father farmed and worked in a coal mine and by 1940 the family was share-cropping near Richland, Missouri.

Ethel was in K Company 140th Infantry, a National Guard unit in Sikeston, Missouri, when it was federalized in December 1940. Whatever other units he was assigned to PFC Owens was transferred from the replacement depot to K Company 116th Infantry on 19 Jun 1944. Initially reported as missing in action, PFC Owens was killed in action on 17 Jul 1944.

PFC Owens is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery.

Ethel's brothers, Darrell Floyd Owens and Virgil Glen Owens, also served in the U.S. Army during WWII.