Ellis Nelson Lee was born 10 July 1922 in Catawba County, North Carolina. He was the second of eight children of Lorenzo “Ranzie” Lester Lee and Dorothy Christine Bowman. He was known as Nelson. He graduated high school and was working as a salesman for a supply store in Poplar Tent, Cabarrus, North Carolina, in 1940. His father was a section hand and warper at a cotton mill. Nelson married Angelia Irene Blackwelder in 1940 in South Carolina. They had one son.

On his 1942 draft registration, Ellis was described as five foot seven inches tall, 131 pounds, with a light complexion, brown hair, and brown eyes. He had a large burn scar on his head. He was. He was working at Central Motor Lines in Kannapolis, North Carolina, in 1943 when he enlisted as a Private in the US Army on 14 September 1943 in Camp Croft, South Carolina. He fought with Company F, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

The regiment fought German forces on three fronts, North Africa, Italy, and Northwest Europe. It is quite probable no other regiment in the US Army in World War II exceeded the 7th in combat time. They landed at Anzio, conducted a breakout and drove towards Rome. In August 1944, the regiment landed again, this time in Southern France as part of Operation Dragoon, advancing up the Rhone River to the German frontier. In November, Nelson was hospitalized for an injury to his toes by an artillery shell fragment. He was released and was killed in action five days later.

Nelson’s body was returned to North Carolina and reinterred in Carolina Memorial Park in Concord in 1949. He earned the rank of Private First Class and was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. At his death, George had a brother in the military who was stationed in the Philippines and survived the war. Irene remarried and had more children. She died in 2011 in Concord.

REFERENCES

North Carolina Birth Index, 1800-2000.

United States Census, 1930, 1940.

The Charlotte News, 17 November 1940, p. 35.

U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999.

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.

United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.

Wikipedia: 7th Infantry Regiment (United States).

U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954.

WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualty List.

The Daily Times-News, 1 February 1945, p. 5.

Greensboro Daily News, 29 December 1944, p. 6; 30 July 1949, p. 11.

The News and Observer, 1 July 1949, p. 20.

U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1970.

Findagrave.com

Ellis N Lee