Hero Card 300, Card Pack 25 [pending]
Artist’s impression by Craig Du Mez
Hometown: Dandridge, TN
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Company G, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: March 1, 1945 - KIA 35 miles west of Cologne, Germany
Age: 26
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945
The youngest of eight children, Willie Garfield Reneau was born in Inman, South Carolina, on April 29, 1918.
His family—including parents Martin and Amy (Gann) Reneau, and siblings George, Jessimae, Mary, Lestie, Bulah, Sam, and Arville—moved to rural Tennessee, near the town of Dandridge.
According to family, Willie “Bill” Reneau came from a long line of East Tennessee farmers who served their country in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War (on the Union side).
On June 25, 1937, Reneau married Nina Worth, from nearby English Mountain, Tennessee. The couple later welcomed a daughter, Ina Ruth, and a son, Willie Lee.
On his draft registration card, Reneau stated that he was employed by the Works Progress Association (WPA). As the nation struggled during the Great Depression (1929-1939), President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration launched a series of “new deal” federally funded projects to put Americans to work.
The Knoxville Journal notes that, like many young men from east Tennessee, Reneau was put to work with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). To meet the growing energy needs for essential wartime production factories, the TVA was created for one of the largest hydropower construction programs ever undertaken in the United States.
With war raging across Europe and in the South Pacific, Reneau enlisted in the United States Army on March 13, 1944.
After training at Camp Fannin, near Tyler, Texas, Reneau was assigned to Company G (a rifle company), 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division and sent to the European Theater of Operations in August 1944.
By the time PFC Reneau joined the fighting in the summer of 1944, Allied forces had stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, and had begun to push the German Army out of western Europe. But final victory would not come easily as his 36th Armored Infantry Regiment moved into western Germany, pushing east toward the Rhine River.
On March 1, 1945, PFC Reneau’s regiment was involved in heavy fighting 35 miles west of the strategically important German city of Cologne—a vital hub for German industry, supply, and transportation located on the Rhine River.
Reneau’s 36th Armored Infantry Regiment successfully secured the German towns of Widdendorf and Thorr, but at a very high cost in men and materiel. Among the many casualties, PFC Willie G. Reneau was lost, at age 26.
Two months later, on May 7, 1945, the German Third Reich unconditionally surrendered.
PFC Reneau was laid to rest in his hometown, with full military honors.
Sources
Details provided by Ms. Lisa Baird, PFC Reneau’s granddaughter
Artist’s impression by Craig Du Mez
East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association: Willie G. Reneau
Tennessee Encyclopedia: Works Progress Administration
Association of 3D Armored Division Veterans: 36th Armored Infantry Regiment WWII
U.S. Army Intelligence Division: After Action Report, 36th Armored Inf. Regt. 3rd Armored Division, Nov. 1944 thru April 1945 (p. 77, 90)
The Knoxville Journal, Mar. 24, 1945: Pfc. Reneau Meets Death In Germany
HonorStates.org: Willie G Reneau
Burial Site: Find a Grave
