A ceremony will be held in Peebles on Thursday, May 22, celebrating the recent memorialization of a portion on SR 781 in honor of Willard Boston Wallace who made the ultimate sacrifice. This photo depicts Wallace in a field in South Vietnam. (Photo Courtesy of Roxanne McCoy)
By Ryan Applegae
People’s Defender
For decades, the name Willard Boston Wallace went largely unspoken in his hometown of Peebles, Ohio. A young man from the rural outskirts of Adams County, Wallace died in combat during the Vietnam War on November 23, 1967—just two months and a day after his 20th birthday. Nearly 60 years later, his story has resurfaced, and a stretch of State Route 781 will now carry his name: The CPL Willard Boston Wallace Memorial Highway.
Born on September 23, 1947, Wallace grew up in severe poverty on Davis Memorial Road outside of Peebles. Those who remember his family speak of bare feet and empty lunchboxes. “People nowadays say they’re poor,” said lifelong Peebles resident Brian Seaman. “They don’t know what poor used to mean. Sis McCoy said they came to school barefoot. That’s how hard it was.”
Wallace’s schooling was cut short by necessity. Around the fifth or sixth grade, he dropped out to help support his family—an unimaginable thought today. “He was a good, nice young man,” recalled Roxanne “Sis” McCoy, a classmate who knew him well. McCoy shared a tender childhood memory: one Christmas, she gave Willard a toy tool set, and the very next day, he gave her a Davy Crockett handkerchief in return. The gesture has stayed with her ever since.
But as time moved on and the Vietnam War escalated, Wallace’s life took a turn. With little visibility in the community and few resources, Wallace was drafted into the U.S. Army. He entered service on May 15, 1967, and just over six months later, on November 23, 1967, he was killed in action in Dinh Tuong Province, South Vietnam. He served as an Infantryman—Military Occupational Specialty 11B10—with Echo Company, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Vietnam. He held the rank of Private First Class at the time of his death but was posthumously promoted to Corporal and awarded the Purple Heart. His body was recovered and brought home for burial at Evergreen Cemetery off Allen Chapel Road.
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