Obituary of Lt. Col. William Wayne Murphey of Grayson, LA
Submitted by William R. Holly, Jr.
Source: unknown
1/10/00


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Lt. Col. Murphey Dies in Jap Prison

Lt. Col. William Wayne Murphey, native of Grayson and brother of the
late Dr. J.W. Murphey of Monroe, died of acute colitis on January 31,
1945, while a prisoner of the Japanese on Honshu Island, according to
information received from the War Department by members of his family.

The War Department said the information of Colonel Murphey's death
was received through the Red Cross and that the long delay in notifying
the family was occasioned solely by failure of the Japanese government
to report the death until recently.

Lt. Colonel Murphey was reared at Grayson.  He was a graduate of
Louisiana State University, class of 1914, and he entered the army in
1917 and had served the armed forces continuously since that time as
a member of the field artillery.

In 1939 he returned to the Philippines, having prevously served there
from 1930 to 1932.  At the outbreak of the recent war he was stationed
at Fort Statsenburg, Pamapnya, Philippine Islands, and he became a
prisoner of war of the Japanese at the fall of Bataan.

According to information received, he was held at Cabanathan on Luzon
until December 1944 and was then transferred to a prison camp on
Honshu where his death occurred.

His wife, formerly of Alexandria, now resides in San Francisco.  In addition
to the late Mr. Murphey, he was also a brother of C.C. Murphey, Farmerville,
and Mrs. Bell M. Leslie, Grayson.

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