1LT Floyd Lowell Cunningham

1LT Floyd Lowell Cunningham was born in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota on 1 Apr 1886. He was the eldest of the five children born to George William and Itasca Ann (Sherman) Cunningham. His father was first a farmer. After his mother died in 1897, George moved nearer his maternal grandparents and worked as a butcher while Floyd was made the ward of Huston and Helen Hays in Brown County, Minnesota near Sleepy Eye. George remarried in 1902 and after farming some in Minnesota he moved with his new wife and their young son to Perry, New Mexico and Dallam, Texas. 

What Floyd was doing in this time is unclear but he may have enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard and did duty as a Second Lieutenant on the Mexican border in 1916 and was discharged in January 1917. However, he was soon back in service and departed for France in June 1918 aboard the USAT Finland as a First Lieutenant in K Company 116th Infantry. 1LT was killed in action on 15 Oct 1918 north east of Consenvoye, France in the vicinity of Molleville Farm. 

Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the citation is as follows:

"The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Floyd L. Cunningham, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, A.E.F., near Brabant, France, 8 October 1918. Lieutenant Cunningham displayed rare courage in voluntarily going to the assistance of a wounded comrade, under heavy machine-gun and shell fire."

1LT Cunningham was among the soldiers repatriated aboard the USAT Wheaton in July 1921. He now rests near his immediate family in the Home Cemetery in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.