Circumstances:
Died in service in Italy
Biography:
Private First-Class Lawrence Edwin Kennedy, born 4 Apr 1923, was the son of John Miles Kennedy and Cecilia (Farr) Kennedy of Hensel, Pembina County, ND. Hensel, also known as Canton City, is in extreme NE North Dakota about 20 miles from the Canadian border and Minnesota state line.
In the 1925 North Dakota state census 2-year-old Lawrence is living with his parents and siblings Cecil 14, Warren 12, Manvel 9, George 7, and Barbara 5, on a farm in Park Township, Pembina County, ND.
In the 1930 census 7-year-old Lawrence is living with his parents and siblings Warren 17, Manvel 14, George 12, Barbara 10, and Bernard 3, on a farm in Cavalier Township, Pembina County, ND. His father is a general farmer.
In the 1940 census 17-year-old Lawrence is living with his parents and siblings Manvel 24, Barbara 20, and Bernard 14, still on the farm in Cavalier Township, Pembina County, ND.
On his Apr 1942 draft registration 19-year-old Lawrence is living with brother George 24, at 821 ½ 10th Avenue in Seattle. He is employed at Todd's Dry Dock (Todd Pacific Shipyards) at Harbor Island, Seattle.
Lawrence's work at the Todd Pacific Shipyards would have been vital to the war effort so he may not have enlisted or been inducted until very late in the war. He was likely a replacement assigned to Company B, 351st Infantry Regiment of the 88th Infantry Division.
On 8 Apr 1945 the 88th Infantry Division was in the Apennine Mountains just south of Monterumici, 16 miles south southwest of Bologna preparing for the breakthrough into the Po River Valley a week later.
The NARA WWII casualty listing by state and county for Washington show Kennedy, Lawrence E, Pfc from King County as DNB (Died Non-Battle) so he died in the line of duty from some illness or accident on 8 Apr 1945.
A cenotaph marker in memory of Lawrence was placed in the Kennedy family plot at the St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in Crystal, Pembina County, ND.