PFC Billy Festus Snider (WWII)

Remembering PFC Billy Festus Snider (Monongah/Fairmont)

April 8, 1925 - June 1, 1944

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PFC Billy Festus Snider (Service #35758283) was born April 8, 1925 in Monongah, WV, the son of Lawrence and Jennie (Gandy) Snider. Billy was the 7th child of 9: four girls and five boys.

According to the 1930 census, their family lived at 25 Main Street in Monongah, where Lawrence was an electrician in the coal mines. Between 1930 and 1935, their family moved to Fairmont, where they lived at 3 Plaza Place (1940 census). Lawrence was a machinist in the coal mines.

Billy attended Fairmont Senior High School for three years, dropping out before senior year to enlist in the military. The 1943 Maple Leaves yearbook said of Billy, "Billy, one of our sport juniors has the 'great' ambition 'to work.' His hobbies are dancing, swimming, and skating, all of which he does very, very well. His activities include study halls."

Military Service:

Billy registered for the draft on April 8, 1943- his 18th birthday. The draft card records him as being employed at the Virginia Theatre, and that he was 6'2" and 155 lbs, with green eyes and brown hair.

Army enlistment records show that he enlisted on July 19, 1943 in Clarksburg, WV, just short of his senior year of high school.

Billy served in the 143rd Infantry, 36 Infantry Division.

Legacy:

PFC Billy Festus Snider was awarded the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster for his service. He was eventually interred in the late 1940s at the Shinnston Memorial Cemetery in Harrison County, WV, alongside his parents and several siblings.

Billy's younger brothers, SGT Jack Snider (Army) and SKSN Richard Snider (Navy) both went on to serve in the military- Jack in WWII and Richard in Korea.

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