Henderson Hometown Hero: PFC John Frederick Wilkerson (1924-1945)
In Section 22, Lot 1190 at Fernwood Cemetery rests one of Henderson’s own, a young man who left South Alvasia Street to fight in a world at war and never came home.
John Frederick Wilkerson was born on August 2, 1924, in Henderson, Kentucky, the son of Shirley Darrell Wilkerson, Sr. and Virginia R. Robinson Wilkerson. The 1930 and 1940 census records show the Wilkerson family living in Henderson’s Magisterial District No. 5. By 1942, John was a student at Barret Manual Training High School, appearing in the Revue yearbook-just another Henderson teenager with his whole life ahead of him.
But history intervened.
On March 31, 1943, at just 18 years old, John entered military service at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He would become a Private First Class in Company G, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment-one of the elite airborne units of the U.S. Army during World War II.
The 507th PIR saw some of the fiercest combat of the war. After parachuting into Normandy in June 1944 and later fighting during the Battle of the Bulge, the regiment endured brutal winter conditions and relentless German resistance. It was during this final phase of the war that PFC Wilkerson made the ultimate sacrifice.
On February 7, 1945, in Luxembourg, at just 20 years old, John F. Wilkerson was killed in action.
His military record reflects the quiet facts:
• Rank: Private First Class
• Service Number: 35728164
• Unit: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Company G
• Entered Service: March 31, 1943
• Died in Action: February 7, 1945 – Luxembourg
But those details cannot capture what his loss meant to a Henderson family, or to a small river town that sent so many of its sons overseas.
His grave marker at Fernwood is simple and dignified:
PFC John F. Wilkerson
1924 – 1945
Died in Action – Luxembourg
Above his name is carved a single word: “SON.”
That word says everything.
John was a son of Shirley and Virginia.
A classmate in Henderson schools.
A neighbor on South Alvasia Street.
A young man who answered his country’s call before he was old enough to vote.
Today, nearly eighty years later, his name remains part of Henderson’s story. A reminder that the freedoms we enjoy were purchased at a cost paid by hometown boys like him.
When you walk through Fernwood Cemetery and see his stone, pause for a moment. Remember the 20-year-old paratrooper from Henderson who jumped into history and never returned.
We remember you, PFC John Frederick Wilkerson.
Henderson has not forgotten. 🇺🇸
