John Wesley Powers was born on April 16, 1925, in Henry County, Tennessee. He was the son of Robert Lincoln Powers and Delcie Stallcup Powers. The 10th of 11 children, he was the youngest of six sons and attended Midway School, about a mile walk from his home. He met and married Rosa Lee Crawford, who lived two miles west of the family farm, and they had a little girl they named Judy.

Then, only four months after his 18th birthday, Powers enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1943 and was sent to the 45th Infantry Division. He took part in the Anzio action in Italy before the unit was transferred, as part of the U.S. 6th Corps, to join Operation Dragoon in France. In August 1944, Almost a year after his enlistment, he and his unit landed on the beaches of the French Riviera, and began 86 days of fighting their way inland to Alsace-Lorraine in Eastern France.

PFC Powers died on January 4, 1945, of his wounds received in combat in Dambach, France. Sometime during the day’s fighting, Powers was injured after his position was overrun and occupied by Germans. He was taken to a German aid station at Neunhoffen but later died of his wounds. The Germans buried him with a fallen German soldier next to a roadside monument of Christ on the Cross, the unnamed German on the left, and Powers on the right. After the burial, the Germans left a map with the mayor of Dambach showing the grave’s location. The remains were recovered after the war and re-interred at the U.S. Military cemetery in St. Avold on April 29, 1946. Two years later, his remains were repatriated, and he received his final burial at Olive Branch Cemetery, TN in the fall of 1948.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.parispi.net