Join correspondent Tom Wilmer in Pall Mall, Tennessee. Wilmer visits with World War I U.S. Army hero Sergeant Alvin York’s daughter, Betsy Ross York-Lowery and great-granddaughter, Deborah York, at the family’s farmhouse.
A pacifist, York reluctantly went to war and wound up one of America’s most highly decorated heroes.
Recipient of the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, York killed 25 and single-handedly captured 132 German soldiers during final offensive of WW1 in the Meuse-Argonne forest of France, just weeks before the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918.
He returned to his rural hometown and commenced a lifelong quest to build schools and provide opportunities for the disenfranchised rural children throughout the Cumberland Gap region of Tennessee.
In addition to sharing fascinating tales about her great grandfather’s heroic modesty on and off the battlefield, Deborah York, executive director of the Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation, offers insights about the nonprofit’s mission to continue Sergeant York’s lifelong passion for education and honoring U.S. military veterans.
This show was originally broadcast in November 2018 and is reposted in commemoration of Memorial Day 2022.
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