PVT Ernest Caviness Vaughn

PVT Ernest Caviness Vaughn was born 14 Aug 1920 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was the eldest of 5 children born to Alton Caviness and Myrtle Victoria (Gregory) Vaughn. His father worked as a loom fixer in a cotton mill for at least 2 decades and earning a reported 1939 income of $1250. Ernest attended Rankin High School and then went to work for the Revolution Manufacturing Company. Ernest met and married Thelma Janice (Martin) Taylor, a 29-year old widow with 3 children, in 1942. The couple had a daughter in 1943. 

Ernest was drafted in October 1942. He was initially trained at Camp Croft, South Carolina and then at Camp Wheeler, Georgia before being sent to Europe in June 1944. PVT Vaughn was transferred from the replacement depot to A Company 116th Infantry on 11 Aug 1944. He fought with the unit as a rifleman and was killed in action outside of Brest, France on 26 Aug 1944. 

PVT Vaughn was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Brother, Edward Watou Vaughn, also served in the U.S. Army in Europe in WW2. His father served in B Company 119th Infantry, 30th Division in WW1. Great grandfather, Stephen Vaughn, served as a PVT in D Company 2nd Arsenal Guard Infantry (North Carolina, CSA) in the Civil War.