Lawrence "Nelson" Harris was born on March 16, 1920, in Elkwater, West Virginia to George Washington Harris and Bertha Elizabeth Wiseman Harris. He is their second of six children and their second of three sons.

He is the grandson of Nelson Alexander Harris & Virginia Jennie Riffle Harris and John Marshall Wiseman & Lula E. Rinehart Wiseman.

Nelson is the brother to Paul Merl, Eugene H., Ruth Ann, Mary Louise, and Evelyn "Lucille".

During World War II Nelson enlisted into the United States Army in Fort Hayes, Ohio on January 23, 1942, as a Private First Class. After boot camp he was assigned to the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion.

On October 9, 1944, while clearing the way for the United States Army to advance in the Parroy Forrest, France the M-10 tank destroyer in which he, Cpl. Hellums, Pvt. Owens, and Sgt. Rabe occupied was hit by German enemy anti-tank fire. Sgt. Rabe was blown free of the tank while Pfc. Harris and the others perished by fire in the tank. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal.

After the war the U.S. Army Graves Registration Board was unable to locate the wreckage and recover the remains of the soldiers and the men were declared dead and unrecoverable. The U.S. Army Graves Registration Board was not aware that some of the soldier's remains were removed and buried without identification in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

In 2003, a French national exploring the Parroy Forest found human remains and other materials that were later identified as those of the soldiers who were killed in the M-10 tank destroyer on October 9, 1944.

The remains in the Ardennes American Cemetery were exhumed and along with those found at the site were sent to Hawaii for DNA identification. The DOD announced today that the remains of Pfc. Lawrence "Nelson" Harris have been positively identified along with those of Cpl. Judge C. Hellums. Now, he and Cpl. Hellums will now return home to the country for which they laid down their lives.

Pfc. Lawrence "Nelson" Harris will be laid to rest almost sixty-six years to the day of his death in the West Virginia National Cemetery in Prunytown, West Virginia on October 8, 2010, with full military honors from the honor guards from Taylor County and Camp Dawson.

PFC Harris is preceded in death by his parents and his siblings. He is survived by his nieces, his one great-niece, his nephews, and his cousins.

Welcome home PFC Harris.
∼Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris - WWII vet gets final resting place Elkins soldier was killed in France more than six decades ago.

Charleston Daily Mail (WV) - Friday, October 8, 2010
Deceased Name: Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris - WWII vet gets final resting place Elkins soldier was killed in France more than six decades ago $%
After 66 years, the remains of a young Elkins soldier who died fighting the Germans in France will be put to rest in his home state of West Virginia.
Brenda Wamsley of Clarksburg was just 3 years old when her uncle, Army Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris, was killed in action during World War II.
His long-awaited remains will be buried this afternoon at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Pruntytown with full military honors. An honor guard from Taylor County and Camp Dawson in nearby Preston County will participate.
Wamsley, 69, said a woman called her a few years ago from an Army base in Hawaii to tell her the military had been searching for her uncle's remains and may have found them in a gravesite for unknown soldiers in Belgium.
At first Wamsley thought it was a joke.
"We always wondered, you know, what happened to him, but we always hoped someone would find him," she said in a telephone interview Thursday. "But then that phone call, I just couldn't believe it; I thought she was joking."
A few months later she spoke to her cousin, Carolyn Weese in Calodonia, N.Y., who had undergone DNA testing so the Army could compare it with the remains they had recovered.
Weese said her DNA was a match and the remains were indeed their uncle's.
On Oct. 9, 1944, Harris and four other men with the 773rd Tank Battalion were on a M-10 Tank Destroyer fighting to clear German forces from Parroy Forest near Luneville in northeastern France.
The tank was struck by enemy fire in the final battle for control of the region.
Harris was killed in the blast. He was 24 years old.
Evidence at the time indicated the remains of the men killed in the tank blast were neither recovered nor buried near the location, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
A French soldier working in the Parroy Forest in 1946 found debris associated with an M-10 vehicle and human remains. The remains were turned over to the American Graves Registration Command and buried as unknown soldiers in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
The soldiers working with Graves Registration went back to the forest in 1947 to search for additional remains but found none.
In 2003, more than 50 years later, a French citizen exploring the forest found human remains and an identification bracelet belonging to Army Cpl. Judge C. Hellums from Mississippi, who also had been on the tank.
The man turned over the remains to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in 2006 when they were working in Europe.
The unit had been conducting research on the burials of the unknown at the Ardennes American Cemetery and was able to draw a correlation between Hellums and the unknowns removed from that battle site.
The unit disinterred the remains from the cemetery in 2008 and transported them to Hawaii, where the forensic investigation took place.
Army investigators used dental comparisons and DNA from Weese to confirm the identity of the remains believed to be Harris'.
But it was to be two years before Harris' body would be sent back to West Virginia.
Wamsley said the Army contacted her because she was the oldest of Harris' surviving relatives.
Harris was the youngest of the late George and Bertha Harris' seven children, all of whom have died. Wamsley's father, Gene Harris, a coal miner, died of a heart attack at the age of 41.
"He often spoke of him, always wondered if they'd ever find him out there," Wamsley said of her father.
She wasn't sure if the military ever told her grandparents that Harris had been killed or if he had been listed as missing in action. She does recall her grandparents speaking fondly of him when she was a child.
Although she doesn't have any personal memories of her uncle, she said it was still good to have him back in West Virginia.
"It's wonderful to finally have the answers after all these years and to finally have him home," she said. "We're not wondering anymore about where he is."
Harris' graveside service is set for 1 p.m. Wamsley said Gov. Joe Manchin and Sen. Jay Rockefeller plan to attend.
The governor has ordered that all U.S. and state flags be lowered to half-staff today in honor of Harris and another soldier, Navy Petty Officer Kenneth McKee, 24, of Fayetteville, who died Sept. 29 in Jacksonville, Fla., after a motorcycle crash.

Lawrence "Nelson" Harris was born on March 16, 1920, in Elkwater, West Virginia to George Washington Harris and Bertha Elizabeth Wiseman Harris. He is their second of six children and their second of three sons.

He is the grandson of Nelson Alexander Harris & Virginia Jennie Riffle Harris and John Marshall Wiseman & Lula E. Rinehart Wiseman.

Nelson is the brother to Paul Merl, Eugene H., Ruth Ann, Mary Louise, and Evelyn "Lucille".

During World War II Nelson enlisted into the United States Army in Fort Hayes, Ohio on January 23, 1942, as a Private First Class. After boot camp he was assigned to the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion.

On October 9, 1944, while clearing the way for the United States Army to advance in the Parroy Forrest, France the M-10 tank destroyer in which he, Cpl. Hellums, Pvt. Owens, and Sgt. Rabe occupied was hit by German enemy anti-tank fire. Sgt. Rabe was blown free of the tank while Pfc. Harris and the others perished by fire in the tank. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal.

After the war the U.S. Army Graves Registration Board was unable to locate the wreckage and recover the remains of the soldiers and the men were declared dead and unrecoverable. The U.S. Army Graves Registration Board was not aware that some of the soldier's remains were removed and buried without identification in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

In 2003, a French national exploring the Parroy Forest found human remains and other materials that were later identified as those of the soldiers who were killed in the M-10 tank destroyer on October 9, 1944.

The remains in the Ardennes American Cemetery were exhumed and along with those found at the site were sent to Hawaii for DNA identification. The DOD announced today that the remains of Pfc. Lawrence "Nelson" Harris have been positively identified along with those of Cpl. Judge C. Hellums. Now, he and Cpl. Hellums will now return home to the country for which they laid down their lives.

Pfc. Lawrence "Nelson" Harris will be laid to rest almost sixty-six years to the day of his death in the West Virginia National Cemetery in Prunytown, West Virginia on October 8, 2010, with full military honors from the honor guards from Taylor County and Camp Dawson.

PFC Harris is preceded in death by his parents and his siblings. He is survived by his nieces, his one great-niece, his nephews, and his cousins.

Welcome home PFC Harris.
∼Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris - WWII vet gets final resting place Elkins soldier was killed in France more than six decades ago.

Charleston Daily Mail (WV) - Friday, October 8, 2010
Deceased Name: Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris - WWII vet gets final resting place Elkins soldier was killed in France more than six decades ago $%
After 66 years, the remains of a young Elkins soldier who died fighting the Germans in France will be put to rest in his home state of West Virginia.
Brenda Wamsley of Clarksburg was just 3 years old when her uncle, Army Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris, was killed in action during World War II.
His long-awaited remains will be buried this afternoon at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Pruntytown with full military honors. An honor guard from Taylor County and Camp Dawson in nearby Preston County will participate.
Wamsley, 69, said a woman called her a few years ago from an Army base in Hawaii to tell her the military had been searching for her uncle's remains and may have found them in a gravesite for unknown soldiers in Belgium.
At first Wamsley thought it was a joke.
"We always wondered, you know, what happened to him, but we always hoped someone would find him," she said in a telephone interview Thursday. "But then that phone call, I just couldn't believe it; I thought she was joking."
A few months later she spoke to her cousin, Carolyn Weese in Calodonia, N.Y., who had undergone DNA testing so the Army could compare it with the remains they had recovered.
Weese said her DNA was a match and the remains were indeed their uncle's.
On Oct. 9, 1944, Harris and four other men with the 773rd Tank Battalion were on a M-10 Tank Destroyer fighting to clear German forces from Parroy Forest near Luneville in northeastern France.
The tank was struck by enemy fire in the final battle for control of the region.
Harris was killed in the blast. He was 24 years old.
Evidence at the time indicated the remains of the men killed in the tank blast were neither recovered nor buried near the location, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
A French soldier working in the Parroy Forest in 1946 found debris associated with an M-10 vehicle and human remains. The remains were turned over to the American Graves Registration Command and buried as unknown soldiers in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
The soldiers working with Graves Registration went back to the forest in 1947 to search for additional remains but found none.
In 2003, more than 50 years later, a French citizen exploring the forest found human remains and an identification bracelet belonging to Army Cpl. Judge C. Hellums from Mississippi, who also had been on the tank.
The man turned over the remains to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in 2006 when they were working in Europe.
The unit had been conducting research on the burials of the unknown at the Ardennes American Cemetery and was able to draw a correlation between Hellums and the unknowns removed from that battle site.
The unit disinterred the remains from the cemetery in 2008 and transported them to Hawaii, where the forensic investigation took place.
Army investigators used dental comparisons and DNA from Weese to confirm the identity of the remains believed to be Harris'.
But it was to be two years before Harris' body would be sent back to West Virginia.
Wamsley said the Army contacted her because she was the oldest of Harris' surviving relatives.
Harris was the youngest of the late George and Bertha Harris' seven children, all of whom have died. Wamsley's father, Gene Harris, a coal miner, died of a heart attack at the age of 41.
"He often spoke of him, always wondered if they'd ever find him out there," Wamsley said of her father.
She wasn't sure if the military ever told her grandparents that Harris had been killed or if he had been listed as missing in action. She does recall her grandparents speaking fondly of him when she was a child.
Although she doesn't have any personal memories of her uncle, she said it was still good to have him back in West Virginia.
"It's wonderful to finally have the answers after all these years and to finally have him home," she said. "We're not wondering anymore about where he is."
Harris' graveside service is set for 1 p.m. Wamsley said Gov. Joe Manchin and Sen. Jay Rockefeller plan to attend.
The governor has ordered that all U.S. and state flags be lowered to half-staff today in honor of Harris and another soldier, Navy Petty Officer Kenneth McKee, 24, of Fayetteville, who died Sept. 29 in Jacksonville, Fla., after a motorcycle crash.