Early Life

Jay Edgar Hansford was born 28 May 1923 in Hockerville, Oklahoma to Leroy Hansford born in Missouri and who served in WWI with the 30th Infantry, Co. E and Mary Eleanor Lenox also of Missouri. Jay had seven siblings, Lina Lee, Juanita Mae, Chester, Charlotte, Betty Joan, Billy Ray, and Leroy Jr. Jay’s father, Leroy worked in the lead and zinc mines of Hockerville, Oklahoma.

Education

Jay completed the 6th grade according to the 1940 U.S. Census.

Personal Life

In the early summer of 1941 Jay met Joan Elsten at her father’s ore hauling business, Floyd W. Elston, ore hauling at which Jay was employed in Baxter Springs, Kansas, they later married at the home of Judge Graves in Columbia, Kansas. On 9 April 1944 in Baxter Springs, Kansas a baby girl was born that would be named Zandra Sue Hansford.

Military and Death

Jay joined the Army in 1942 and took his basic training at Ft. Sill Army Base, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He was attached to the 146th Engineer Combat Battalion, Company A, and was assigned service number 38463672. Pfc. Jay Hansford was part of the initial landing group, serving with a demolition gapping team on Omaha Beach as part of Gap Team 1 in Dog Green zone on Omaha (29th Division landing zone), at Vierville sur Mer.

Note: The gapping teams were to destroy beach obstacles for following troop landing.

On 11 Aug 1944 Pfc. Jay Edgar Hansford was listed as missing.

Death

Pfc. Jay Edgar Hansford was killed during the landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944.He left a wife, Joan and daughter Zandra Sue at his passing.

Pfc. Jay Edgar Hansford was awarded the following citations:

Purple Heart Combat Infantry Badge WWII Victory Medal Army Good Conduct Medal Army Combat Medal American Presidential Unit Citation European-African-Middle-Eastern Campaign Medal

Burial

Pfc. Jay E. Hansford is memorialized at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Department du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France, Plot G, Row 22, Grave 3.

Note: Pfc. Zandra Marlow nee Hansford has posted a memorial to her Dad, Jay on Together We Served, a fitting tribute from a loving daughter to the heroic father she never met. You may view the tribute here:

Bibliography:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56645303/jay-edgar-hansford

https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=101436

The Landings on Omaha and Utah - https://history.army.mil/html/reference/Normandy/TS/COE/COE15.htm

1940 U.S. Census - Ancestry

"This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story."