Henderson Hero: PFC Parker Cleveland Yates 🇺🇸
On a quiet stretch in Section 1 of Fernwood Cemetery rests a soldier who never made it home alive.
His name was Parker Cleveland Yates.
He was born May 5, 1909, in Union County, Kentucky, the son of Geril Parker Yates. By 1940, Parker was living a simple, hardworking life not uncommon for Kentucky men of his generation. Census records show him working for the W.P.A., part of the federal work programs that helped sustain families during the Great Depression. Like so many others, he was building roads, doing manual labor, and doing what it took to provide.
He was married to Beatrice Mortis Lancaster Yates, and when he filled out his draft registration card, he listed her as the person who would “always know your address.” That small line – written in ink on a government form – says everything about what mattered most to him.
On October 23, 1943, Parker entered the United States Army.
He became a Private in Company B, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.
By the summer of 1944, the 60th Infantry was deep in the hedgerows of Normandy, France. After the D-Day landings and the brutal fighting of June and July, the division was part of the Allied breakout following Operation Cobra. The terrain was unforgiving – narrow sunken lanes, thick hedgerows, hidden German positions, and constant artillery fire.
On August 2, 1944, at just 35 years old, Parker Yates was killed in action in France.
For nearly five years, his body rested overseas, as was common for many American soldiers. Then in the spring of 1949, he finally came home.
The April 2, 1949 edition of the Evansville Courier and Press reported that the body of Pvt. Parker C. Yates had arrived at Tapp Funeral Home in Henderson. Funeral services were held in the Tapp chapel, and burial followed in Fernwood Cemetery with American Legion Post No. 40 conducting full military rites.
His government-issued flat marble marker was ordered in 1949. It reads:
PARKER C. YATES
KENTUCKY
PVT 60 INF 9 DIV
WORLD WAR II
MAY 5 1909 – AUG 2 1944
Today, visitors can find him in Section 1, Lot 2602, Grave 6 at Fernwood Cemetery.
He is one of many sons who answered the call – a WPA laborer turned infantryman, a husband who left home and never returned, a Kentucky soldier who fell in the fields of France helping secure freedom in Europe.
When you walk Fernwood and see that simple marble stone set low to the ground, remember:
Behind every name is a life.
Behind every date is a family.
Behind every marker is a story.
And Parker Cleveland Yates’ story is part of Henderson’s story. 🇺🇸
