George Newport
George Byrd Newport (May 6, 1916 – Sept. 17, 1944) was a soldier from Robbins who was killed in Holland during World War II.
See Also: Scott Countians killed in war
Biography
Born May 6, 1916, George Newport was the son of James “Titus” Newport (1878-1938) and Hulda Ellis (1886-1943). His siblings included Cora Stonecipher (1906-1978), Nora Lavender (1908-1979), Arthur Douglas Newport (1911-1969) and Hester Newport (1913-1933).
Arthur Newport also served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Their great-grandfather, Richard “Hicks” Newport, was a Union soldier who died in a Confederate prison camp at Andersonville (Ga.) during the Civil War. The Newport family in Tennessee dates back to Richard Newport (1744-1825), a Baptist preacher who was sent from North Carolina to Tennessee by the Kehukee Association to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and establish new churches. He was George and Artuhur’s third-great-grandfather. One generation earlier, their fourth-great-grandfather, John Newport (1697-1747) migrated from England to Virginia colony.
The Newports were also descended from Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Goad, who moved from Virginia to New River after the war. Richard “Hicks” Newport married Anna Goad (1815-1900), Abraham Goad’s grandfather.
The brothers’ mother, meanwhile, was part of the large Ellis family in the Black Creek Crossroads area. She died on Nov. 6, 1943 at age 57, during the war. At the time, Arthur was fighting overseas and George was in training at Fort Still, Okla.
George married Florence Gazelle Dunnigan from Syracuse, N.Y. They had a son, Frank James Newport. They met when George moved to Syracuse around 1940 to take a job at Merchant Parcel Service.
World War II
Pvt. Newport enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to Co. A, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He fought in the European theater of the war after training at Fort Benning, Ga. and Fort Still, Okla. He was killed on Sept. 17, 1944, during the Holland invasion.
Aftermath
Pvt. Newport’s body was returned to the U.S. in April 1949, and a funeral service was held at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
He was awarded the Purple Heart. He is listed on the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville, but is not listed on either of the veterans memorials in Scott County.
Florence did not remarry. She spent the rest of her life in upstate New York — most of it in the small town of Cleveland — and died in 1996. Frank married, had two children, and still lives in the upstate New York area.