King, Walter Layton

Walter L. King

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private, U.S. Army WWII

Place of Birth:

Graham County, North Carolina

Date of Birth:

June 7th, 1910

Place of Death:

North Carolina

Date of Death:

February 2nd, 1972

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

Walter Layton King was born on June 7, 1910, in rural Graham County, North Carolina, to Alfred M. King. He grew up alongside his sister, known later as Mrs. C. F. Vincent, and completed grammar school before entering the workforce. By the 1940s, King had relocated to Mebane, North Carolina, where he lived and worked as a farmer under J. C. Ellington in nearby Whitsett, Guilford County.

On October 16, 1940, King registered for the first out of seven mass registration dates of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 to sign up for potential military service. The first draft was meant for men ages 21 to 35 years old. At thirty years old, King filled out his draft card in Mebane and awaited news of his selection. He was called to service on March 20, 1942, and formally enlisted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Assigned to the U.S. Army as a private, his enlistment records list him as standing 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 152 pounds. Those same records note a shift in his reported occupation, from farmer to an “unskilled sawmill occupation not elsewhere classified.”

Information about King’s military service is scarce, but what is known is that he served during the height of World War II and was discharged on January 2, 1943, less than a year after entering the Army. Whatever the circumstances of his service, King returned to civilian life at a moment when the nation continued to push forward in the global conflict.

After the war, King settled in Burlington in Alamance County, North Carolina, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He never married and had no children, spending his later years in the community until his death on February 2, 1972, at a veterans’ hospital in North Carolina. He was 61 years old.

Today, Walter L. King is laid to rest at Stones River National Cemetery, in plot S‑6969.  

Tags: stones river national battlefield, stones river national cemetery, world war ii, us army