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KERENS – A bridge on the newly opened Corridor H segment in Randolph County will be dedicated Saturday in memory of a Kerens soldier killed in action in France during World War II.
The ceremony renaming the Kerens Bridge Lazy Run as the U.S. Army Pvt. Preston D. Vanscoy Memorial Bridge will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Leading Creek Fire Department hall in Kerens.
Born April 26, 1912, in Kerens, Vanscoy was a private in the U.S. Army's E Company, 2nd Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division. Sent overseas to Europe with Gen. George Patton's Third Army, Vanscoy engaged in intense combat against German forces in Normandy, Northern France, near the Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace areas in Central Europe.
Vanscoy, 32, was in France when he was killed by artillery shell fragments in his arm on Sept. 30, 1944, and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal. Vanscoy was interred in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Lorraine, France.
In 2017 the West Virginia Legislature approved House Concurrent Resolution 54, sponsored by then-House of Delegates member Bill Hartman of Elkins, to rename the bridge in Vanscoy's memory. The bridge has been finished for several years; however, because of continuing Corridor H construction between Kerens and Parsons, the structure was not opened for public traffic until June 22 of this year.
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Vanscoy, Vanscoy was married to Alma Hart Vanscoy, and had two children, Buddy and Emma. Prior to entering military service on April 6, 1944, he was employed by the Monongahela Power Company.
A reception will be held at the fire hall prior to the dedication ceremony. For further information, call Roger Ware at 303-636-4365.