US Army Private Johnnie Franklin Cannon was born in Crockett, Houston County, Texas on February 7, 1912, the son of John Marshall "JM" Cannon (1879-1940) and Melvina Alice "Vina" Morehead (1881-1942). Little is known about his parents or formative years. We do know that he was married to Ruby Nola Parker (1912-2002) in 1935 in Giles, Tennessee where they rented a home and worked as farmers. Five years later n 1940, they had relocated to Jay, Florida and was still farming.
Perhaps because of the scarcity of work during the Great Depression, he decided to enlist in the US Army on February 21, 1941, and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing. After basic training, he was assigned to the 8th Infantry Regiment attached to the 4th Infantry Division and participated in the "Louisiana Maneuvers." Afterwards, they moved to Camp Gordon, Georgia (Now Ft. Gordon) where they were involved in the "Carolina Maneuvers." Finally, the division was sent to Fort Dix, NJ. In September 1943, they were sent to Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida where they participated in realistic amphibious training in preparation for D-Day.
Finally, it was time to go, so the regiment embarked on their transports and sailed to England in January 1944. He had one record of a sick call with a diagnosis of acute nasopharyngitis, or in other words a common cold. In the meantime, the division was picked to lead the landing forces on Utah Beach on the Normandy coast of France. They stormed ashore at 0630 hours where the 8th Infantry Regiment laid claim to the title of being the first Allied unit to hit the beaches on D-Day (not counting airborne troops). They fought their way to relieve the beleaguered 82nd Airborne Division at Sainte-Mère-Église before clearing the hedgerows on the Cotentin peninsula and capturing Cherbourg on June 25th. Then came the fight near the French town of Periers on July 6–12th. It was here on July 7th that Johnnie was killed in action and became one of the division's 800 men that perished.
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