By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON, W.Va. — Over 70 years after he died overseas while serving his country, a young man will be coming home to West Virginia for his funeral and final rest.
Corporal Ray Kirby Lilly, known to his family as Kirby, was a resident of the Mary’s Branch community near Matoaka when he left home to join the Army in May 1950. In June that same year, the Korean War began.
Kirby was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division, according to Army records. During the Battle of Unsan, Kirby’s unit held off the attacking Chinese forces so other units could escape the enemy troops that were threatening to overwhelm them.
His unit was overrun and cut off, but they kept fighting until they ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender. Kirby and other members of his regiment were taken to a prisoner of war camp in North Korea where he later died. His fellow Americans buried him near the camp. When he was listed as missing in action on Nov. 2, 1950, he was 17 years and 11 months old.
Kirby was the only son of the late Lake and Cordy Foley Lilly and he had four sisters named Eva, Norma, Carol Louise and Patricia. For decades, his family did not know where his remains were located, but this changed on Oct. 2, 2023 when his family was notified that a DNA laboratory in Hawaii had positively identified his remains.
