Audie Murphy’s story is one that prompts Americans who know it to smile with a shake of the head and say, “only in America . . .” meaning that his story exemplifies the American dream of rising up from nothing to greatness.
It’s the tale of a poor kid, the son of a sharecropper, abandoned by his father, orphaned by his mother, who became a war hero and then a movie star.
The story of Audie Murphy was the very first one I did for the Podcast and it holds a special place in my heart because it was, hands down, my dad’s favorite history story.
He must have told me some version of the Audie Murphy story dozens of times, to the point where it almost became a kind of running joke in our family that whenever he wanted to inspire me to overcome adversity, he’d regard me, with a little smile on his face, and say:
“Son, let me tell you a story about a man named Audie Murphy . . .”
I think he loved the story so much, and told it particularly when someone—usually me—was going through a tough time, because it is a story of someone overcoming incredible odds. It’s the story of someone who never gave up; never accepted defeat.
. . .
For more, listen to the Podcast episode and check out my book, History Stories for Everyone, where I dive deeper into this and some of history’s other most fascinating and relatable human stories:
