Shelly Claud Ferguson Jr. was born Feb. 24, 1925, in Limestone County to Shelly Claud Ferguson Jr. and Susan Irena Buckner Ferguson. He enlisted in the United States Army sometime before turning 18 and served during World War II.
Ferguson became a paratrooper with the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion, Company C, and earned the rank of Private First Class. On Feb. 16, 1944, PFC Ferguson and seven other paratroopers drowned at Lake Kinney Cameron during a night training parachute jump.
According to an article published Feb. 24, 1944, in the Alabama Courier, “His mother was notified by the War Department that he had died in a plane jump.”
He was just 18 years-old, although the military might have believed him to be older. The dates on PFC Ferguson’s headstone is “Feb. 24, 1925-Feb. 16, 1944.” However, the hospital admission file from the US. Army lists him as 20 years old and serving two years and seven months.
A memorial was erected in 1992 at the site of the tragic training accident. The monument reads, “There motto was Aterrizar y Atacar- Land and Attack- This they did.”
PFC Shelly Claud Ferguson is buried in Hatchett Cemetery near the Tanner community.