Bedford County family buries remains of WWII Marine

BEDFORD — For Jimmy Canady, the return of his uncle's remains to his home in Bedford County has been a long time coming.

"I wasn't even born when he got killed," Canady said Saturday. "We're just happy."

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Morris Everette Canady was born March 7, 1921, in Goode and died during World War II on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, James Morrison , youth and publicity chairman of Board-Canady American Legion Post 54 , said during a presentation at Tharp Funeral Home in Bedford Saturday.

Canady was the first Bedford County serviceman to die in the war after the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and he was one of 10 marines killed during a firefight on the South Pacific island Sept. 24, 1942, Morrison said.

Canady's body was buried on Guadalcanal and remained there through the end of the war, Morrison said. Searches conducted in the 1940s to find his and his comrades' grave sites were unsuccessful.

But in 2012, U.S. Department of Defense investigators launched the search again, and two years later, the locations of the Marines' burials were uncovered, Morrison said. Excavations of the sites followed, and laboratory analyses of evidence found there allowed scientists to identify Canady's remains.

Jimmy Canady said he provided a DNA sample that helped to confirm that his uncle's remains had been identified.

"It was me and another family member," he said. "I'd call every year just, just to see if they were still hunting for Morris, and they were, and I finally got the call this year."

The extended family was notified in May that he had been found, Morrison said. The following July, Marine Corps representatives met with them to make arrangements for his return home to Bedford County and provided them with a 147-page book detailing his history and analysis.

Canady's remains were picked up by his extended family members at the Richmond airport Sept. 18 and escorted to Tharp Funeral Home that same evening.

Canady was buried Saturday at Virginia Memorial Park in Forest. He was laid to rest alongside his parents, Roy and Geneva Canady.

"We're just happy that he's with his family now, and everybody is at ease knowing that he's here with his mother and father," Jimmy Canady said.

The nephew said the community has rallied behind his family as his uncle made the journey home.

"I don't know what else they could do," he said. "The town council, and the Marines, a lot of support from the community, the American Legion. I just can't thank everybody enough."

"Morris was lost in the jungle to us back here in Bedford County," Board-Canady American Legion Post 54 Chaplain Rev. Jack Davis said during Saturday's chapel service. "But I want you to know that Morris was not lost to the all-seeing and knowing God of his heritage and faith."

Davis said Canady's parents attended Oakland Methodist Church in Goode, and added that Jimmy Canady remembers attending the church with his grandparents.

"I have no doubt that in 1942 when the news came that Morris had been killed, that that church and community swept around that family and offered the hope and the support that they needed for the days ahead," the chaplain said.

At the close of his remarks, Davis turned towards Canady's urn and said, "Semper Fi, Morris. Semper Fi."

Canady's name is included on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, as well as a memorial on Guadalcanal, Morrison said. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and was eligible for eight medals and ribbons, which were displayed on a uniform adjacent to Canady's urn during Saturday's service.

Canady's name is also included in the name of Bedford County's Board-Canady American Legion Post 54. Morrison said Howard E. Board was the first Bedford County serviceman killed in World War I.

Emma Coleman (540) 981-3198

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