Veterans' Memorial Project

John Hanley Burns Jr.

Sumner, IL

World War II

College: Applied Life Studies

Graduation Year: Attended 1942-1943

Service Branch: Army

Rank: Sergeant

Date of Birth: 07/18/1924

Date of Death: 03/30/1945

Football

Sgt. Burns served with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division. Johnnie Burns was called to serve in the military while enrolled as a freshman, but returned to the U of I on leave to take his final exams to receive credit for the year. Despite a broken leg and appendicitis, he went on to serve his country as a paratrooper. He survived the Battle of the Bulge, but was killed by a sniper in Buldern, Germany near the end of the war before his 21st birthday. He is buried at Sumner Cemetery, Sumner (Lawrence County), Illinois.

-submitted by Janie B. Falta, niece