PFC Lawrence Albert Stone

courtesy of JC

PFC Lawrence Albert Stone was born 15 Oct 1916 in Jodie, West Virginia.  He was the oldest of the 9 children born to Ira M. and Pearl Seattle (Elkins) Stone. The family lived in Jodie, Falls and Anstead in Fayette County, West Virginia where Ira worked for the Gauley Mountain Coal Company in the mines. Ira died in 1938 at the age of 48 possibly of black lung. Lawrence was 21 with no more than a grammar school education and support of the family with children as young as 3 fell on him and he too was working in the mines for Gauley.

Lawrence was drafted in July 1943 and after completing his basic military training was sent to the European theater. PVT Stone was transferred from the replacement depot to K Company 116th Infantry on 24 Jul 1944. He fought with the unit through Vire and then as it was sent with the regiment on the mission to liberate Brest, France. Promoted on 18 Aug 1944, PFC Stone was killed in action near Guilers, France on 28 Aug 1944.

PFC Stone was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Grafton National Cemetery in Grafton, West Virginia.

Brother, Scranton Paul Stone, served in the U.S. Army during the war but suffered frostbite so badly that he was discharged.