06/22/2026
☞Salute!
☞Buttermilk Junction wishes all our Facebook fans a Happy Audie Murphy Day!
☞Today in History -- On today’s date 101 years ago, Saturday, June 20, 1925, famous Texas Army National Guard soldier Audie Leon Murphy (1925-1971), the most highly-decorated American combat soldier of World War II, was born to a family of poor Irish-immigrant sharecroppers in the small East-Texas town of Kingston in Hunt County.
☞Note: Some sources indicate that Audie Murphy was born at the town of Hogeye, a.k.a. Hog Eye Prairie, in Hunt County, Texas, about 15 miles north of Greenville; however, we have been unable to find any convincing evidence that this is so.
☞During his lifetime, Audie Murphy was a cotton picker, subsistence hunter, gas station attendant, store clerk, auto mechanic, radio repairman, U.S. Army infantry soldier & officer, horse breeder, Country-Western song writer, guitar player, & both a movie & television actor.
☞In 1960, Murphy received a “Star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
☞On June 7, 1971, after he died at the age of 45 in an æroplane crash, Audie Murphy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, where his grave is the second most-visited grave site, after that of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
☞On March 16, 1996, Audie Murphy was inducted into the Country Music Association of Texas Hall of Fame in Carthage, Texas.
☞Also on March 16, 1996, Murphy was inducted into The National Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City.
☞In June, 1996, the Texas Legislature officially designated Murphy’s birthday as “Audie Murphy Day” in the State of Texas.
☞Note: Audie Murphy’s 1954 Martin 5-18 guitar is reportedly now in the collection of the Legends of Country Music Museum (formerly known as the Willie Nelson & Friends Showcase Museum) in Nashville, Tennessee.
☞The photograph depicts a 24” x 36” oil painting of Audie Murphy which is said to have been commissioned in 2010 by historian Dave Phillips whilst on a business trip to Africa. The painting is based upon a 1949 black & white photograph of Murphy. The artist is reported to be an unidentified African woman who produced the painting in four days whilst working in a small hut illuminated only by a single 40-watt incandescent light bulb.
