In May of this year, Iris Park flew to Italy to visit her son and while she was there she visited the gravesite of her cousin, Burton Kidd, who died during World War II.
Burton was born June 25, 1924, near Hydro, Oklahoma, to Roy and Yula (Rhoads) Kidd. His father Roy Kidd died as a result of a farming accident July 26, 1929, when Burton was only 5-years-old.
Burton had a younger brother, Billy, and sister, Betty. Billy joined the United States Army in July 1944 and served his country 26 years, serving in Germany, Korea, and three tours in Vietnam. However, after battling lung cancer, Billy died December 25, 1987, and is now buried in the military cemetery in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Burton’s sister, Betty Kidd, graduated from Lake Valley High School near Mountain View. She married Justin Pieper and they had two children, Roy Dean (wife Judy) and Cordelia (husband Johnny Atteberry). Betty is now 96 years old and lives on a farm near Hydro.
Burton grew up near Hydro and attended Hydro High School, where he was active in FFA, basketball, and other activities. During his senior year he and two classmates won the National Livestock Judging Contest in Denver, Colorado.
He was also captain of the basketball team in 1941, when he escorted and crowned the homecoming queen Pauline Johnson. He graduated in May 1941. Soon after graduation, he and Pauline were married. They had two daughters Sharon Kay (husband Mack Barnes) and Shirley Beatrice, both now deceased.
Burton entered the United States Army Air Force in June 1942. He was a Technical Sergeant with the 415th Bomber Squadron, 98th Bomber Group, 15th Air Force. He trained to be a B-24 mechanic in San Diego, California, and had gunnery training at Laredo, Texas, graduating in May 1944. Sgt. Kidd left for overseas duty in November 1944. He was assigned to the 15th AF stationed at Madurai, Italy.
Burton was serving as a gunner when his oxygen mask disconnected, and he lost consciousness because of lack of oxygen while in action at high altitude over Austria on February 12, 1945. After two weeks of unconsciousness, he died in an Air Force Hospital in Southern Italy. He is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery at Nettie no, Italy. He also has a gravestone at Hydro Masonic Cemetery.
Burton left behind his 20-year-old wife, Pauline, and two young children, Sharon, age 2, and Shirley, age 1. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Air Medal posthumously. He never knew Sharon’s sons, his grandsons, Aaron, Curtis, and Jeff Barnes.
A few years after the death of Roy Kidd, Burton’s mother Yula Rhoads Kidd married Harry Harding. In 1946, they and their children moved to a farm west of Onapa (currently part of Fountainhead State Park). The children Ellen, Zane, Wayne, and Rex attended Onapa School. Rex and Burton’s youngest daughter Shirley were born just ten days apart. Shirley was ten days older than her Uncle Rex.
Burton had an abiding faith in God which sustained him during difficulties and separation from his family. He was a member of First Christian Church of Hydro, where his Memorial Service was held in 1945.
“The Kidd Family was a close-knit family with two loving parents and nine children,” Park shared. “They were cotton and peanut farmers in the Hydro, Oklahoma area. I knew my cousins well, even though there were many. Burton was going off to the Army when I was a young child. But his sister, Betty was one whom I looked up to as a role model.
“When I moved to Checotah in 2011 and we built a home on my husband’s (Joe Park) family property on Lake Eufaula, Betty reminded me about her mother’s remarriage to Harry Harding, their move to Onapa, and that her sister, Ellen Vinson, and family still lived here. In August, 2024, at my surprise birthday party, Ellen came to the Heartland Heritage Museum and Gallery and introduced herself to me. What a surprise! I had met yet another cousin!
“So when I travelled to Italy this past summer, one major goal I had was to locate and visit my cousin’s grave, Burton Kidd. I took with me a baggy with two rose rocks and a handful of Oklahoma’s red dirt. When I located his cross marker, with the help of a docent at the Sicily Rome American Cemetery in Nettieno, Italy, I placed an American Flag, an Italian Flag, and the rose rocks at the base of his cross. I scattered the red dirt over his grave and said reverently, ‘Burton, after 80 years you are finally lying beneath Oklahoma soil. Thank you for your service!’
“I have now made a scrapbook of photos and items given to me by the docent at the cemetery and brought them home for Burton’s family. They treasure these items greatly.
“I have truly enjoyed getting to know this extended side of my family who settled in the Checotah area many years before I did. We have shared numerous stories and memories and I’ve learned that cousins are good family members and often become our best friends.”
