Sam Appleby, Jr, a native of Green County, MO entered
service 25 May 1942. As a member of the
505
th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82
nd Airborne Division
he participated in six campaigns in the European theatre of operations, making
four combat parachute jumps behind enemy lines into Sicily, Italy, Normandy (‘D-Day’)
and Holland (‘A Bridge Too Far’). For
his service he was awarded two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, Good Conduct
Medal, European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal with arrowhead and six stars,
World War II Victory Medal, Parachute Wings with four combat stars, Combat
Infantryman’s Badge, two Presidential Unit Citations, French Fourragere,
Belgian Fourragere, Netherlands Orange Lanyard, and the Netherlands Military
Order of William. After discharge as a
First Sergeant 3 October 1945, he graduated from Drury College, Springfield, MO
and The University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, MO. He married Anne Anderson, a native of Ozark,
MO and began his law practice in Ozark in 1951.
He was active in numerous church, civic, veterans, flying and political
organizations, and served two terms as Prosecuting Attorney of Christian
County, MO. He was serving his second
term as Associate Circuit Judge for Christian County when he was killed 10
August 1985 in an airplane accident near Versailles, MO.
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