Name:
Philip Millholland Kennamer
Rank:
Private First Class
Serial Number:
Unit:
517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
Date of Death:
1944-08-15
State:
Oklahoma
Cemetery:
Memorial Park Cemetery, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Comments:
Kennamer was the son of District Judge Franklin E. Kennamer. Judge Kennamer had previously been a colonel in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War and mayor of Madill, Oklahoma. He had also served on the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Young Phillip Kennamer was convicted of manslaughter in 1934 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in one of Tulsa's most notorious crimes. After an unusual parole board hearing in the chambers of the House of Representatives, Gov. Robert S. Kerr paroled Kennamer in April 1943 so he could join the Army as a paratrooper. Kennamer enlisted a few days later. He was killed in the invasion of Southern France on 15 August 1944. (For more on the story see "Murder in the Name of Love" by Jim Freese.)