Remember... Jimmie Wilson Shannon 1943-1964 "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." John F. Kennedy

In 1940, the Federal Census taker recorded the presence of the Shannon family in Middle Fork, Randolph County. In 1940, Thaddeus Shannon was not yet married and was living at home with his mother Cora and his father James. They were a family of farmers.

By 1943, Thaddeus Shannon had married Juanita Fincham. To him and his wife, Jimmie Wilson Shannon was born on October 10, 1943. He was the older of the two Shannon sons. Billy Leon Shannon was born in 1946.

Jimmie Shannon attended Tygart Valley High School and was a member of the Mill Creek Methodist Church. ("Jimmie Shannon Dies After Auto Accident," Randolph Enterprise Review, 10 December 1964). According to the article which announced his death, Jimmie Shannon joined the Army before he graduated from high school. His father had died the preceding year in 1959. Jimmie Shannon enlisted on October 16, 1960, and attained the rank of Specialist 4. He served with the Battery A, 1st Battalion, 29th Artillery in Germany for three years.

In the 1960s, the U.S. military in Germany numbered up to 300,000 personnel across all branches. Their presence was strategic as part of the transatlantic security system and as a nuclear deterrence during the Cold War years. (Hubert Zimmerman, "The Improbable Permanence of Commitment: America's Troop Presence in Europe during the Cold War," Journal of Cold War Studies, 11(1): 3-27 (2009), accessed 2 April 2021, https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article/11/1/3/13070/The-Improbable-Permanence-of-a-Commitment-America.)

Jimmie Shannon had returned to the U.S. and was based at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, in November 1964. As it was reported in the Fitchburg [Massachusetts] Sentinel, November 27, 1964, Army Specialist 4 Jimmy Shannon died in the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston after a vehicle accident, which had occurred six days prior, at the base. The article reported that the car Jimmie Shannon was driving "failed to negotiate a turn at the junction of Groton and Shirley Roads in Ayer, crossed the yellow line divider and went off the shoulder on the left side of the road, continuing some 200 feet into the wood brush." According to the Statement of Casualty, the car struck a tree and a severe head injury was the result. Jimmie Shannon is buried in the Old Brick Church Cemetery in Huttonsville, Randolph County.

Grave marker for Jimmie Shannon in Old Brick Church Cemetery in Huttonsville. Courtesy Cynthia Mullens

Billy Shannon also served in the U.S. Army, from 1963 to 1965, and returned home

Article prepared by Cynthia Mullens
April 2021

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