Neil Lillard Shults was born on 19 May 1914 in Cosby, Cocke County, Tennessee. Son of William and Hattie Lillard Shults. Husband of Wanda Shults.
On 28 December 1943, Neil Shults was drafted into the U.S. Army at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. In the fall of 1944 he was shot in the knee in Belgium, was sent to England for hospitalization, and died there during surgery on October 5, 1944.
The Plain Talk and Tribune, July 12, 1948
The body of Pfc. Neil L. Shults is expected to arrive in Newport soon. Funeral services will be at the home of his Aunt’s Misses Ella and Mary Lillard on Cosby, burial at the Shults cemetery.
Pfc. Shults’ son of Mrs. Hattie Shults, and the late Bill Shults, was inducted at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., Jan. 18, 1944. Her received his basic traning at Fort McClellan, Ala. He is a graduate of Cosby Academy High School, and Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, N.C.
In July of 1944 Pfc. Shults was sent to England, and from there to Belgium where he was wounded on Sept. 5, 1944. He was sent to hospital in England. He died during the course of an operation on Oct. 5, 1944. The Purple Heart awarded posthumously was sent to his wife, Mrs. Wanda Shults.
Pfc. Shults is survived by his mother, Mrs. Hattie Shults, wife Mrs. Wanda Shults and two sons, Billy and Bobby Shults, all of Cosby.
- Rank: Private First Class
- Date of birth: 19 May 1914
- Date of death: 5 October 1944
- County: Cocke
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Marty Shults Cemetery, Cocke County, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar VIII, Middle Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Neil L. Shults
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