Staff Sergeant Larry Jerome Lyons was born on July 19, 1941, and was originally from Johnson City, Tennessee. He later moved to Carter County, where he was a graduate of Happy Valley High School in Elizabethton. He served his country in the Vietnam War in the United States Army, as a heavy construction equipment operator in C Company, 87th Engineering Battalion, 35th Engineering Group, 18th Engineering Brigade. He was an eight-year veteran of the Army when his tour in Vietnam began on June 12, 1967. Nearly ten months later, on April 6, 1968, SSgt. Lyons was killed under hostile conditions from an artillery explosion in Tuyen Duc province, South Vietnam; he was 26 years old at the time of his death. SSgt. Lyons is memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 48E, Line 29.
The Johnson City Press, 9 April 1968
Staff Sgt. Larry J. Lyons, 26, Rt. 2, died in Vietnam Saturday as a result of fragment wounds received while on an airbase which came under hostile mortar attack. He had been in the service for 8 ½ years and had been in Vietnam for the past 10 months. Staff Sgt. Lyons was a graduate of Happy Valley High School, class of 1959, and attended Buffalo Valley Christian Church. Survivors are his widow, Mrs. Peggy Young Lyons, Rt. 2; one daughter, Sherrie Lee Lyons, of the home; one son, Larry J. Lyons, of the home; his father, George L. Lyons, Rt. 4, Elizabethton; his mothers, Mrs. Cora Burleson, Rt. 6; one sister, Mrs. Tootsie Carr, Rt. 1, Watauga; one brother, Wayne Lyons, Rt. 6.
- Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Date of birth: 19 July 1941
- Date of death: 6 April 1968
- County: Carter
- Hometown: Johnson City
- Service Branch: Army
- Division/Assignment: 35th Engineering Group, 18th Engineering Brigade
- Conflict: Vietnam
- Awards: Purple Heart, Bronze Star
- Burial/Memorial Location: Roselawn Memorial Park, Johnson City, Washington County, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XXII, Middle Panel
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