FARMERSVILLE, Texas, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry awarded World War II hero Audie Murphy the state's highest military honor posthumously in a ceremony in his hometown.
Murphy, who was credited with more than 200 Nazi kills and was already given the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States, had never received a similar honor from the Lonestar State, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
Perry visited Murphy's hometown of Farmersville Tuesday for the ceremony, the first time a Texas governor has visited the town. Murphy's last living sibling, a brother, accepted the award on his behalf.
"It is a privilege to live in a state with men and women like Audie Murphy," Perry told the crowd. "He reflected what valor and determination and courage meant."
Murphy became a celebrity after his battlefield heroics, starring in a movie about his life. Among his various acts of bravery, Murphy once jumped onto a burning tank destroyer and used a machine gun to hold off 250 German troops who were advancing on Allied forces, then led a counterattack to retake the portion of land the two sides were fighting to control.
Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971.
