When Burdett Nary was born in July 1893 in Michigan, his father, William, was 31 and his mother, Ella, was 26. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I as a Sergeant in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action but declared "Missing" on September 12, 1918 and is memorialized on Tablets of the Missing, St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, France.