And while Kennedy’s grave is still the most visited, the second most visited grave in Arlington Cemetery is that of the son of a poor Texas sharecropper.

He came from a large family – 10 brothers and sisters. Their dire circumstances were made even worse when his father deserted the family, leaving him to help his mother raise his siblings.

Then, when young Audie Leon Murphy was 16, his mother died, and with the onset of World War II, Murphy sat powerless as his brothers and sisters were doled out one-by-one to relatives and orphanages.

To escape his situation, Murphy looked to the military.  He was too short for the Marines or Paratroopers, so he settled for the infantry.

Like so many people in Arlington, Audie Murphy rose from humble beginnings to become a national hero. By the war’s end, and to this very day, he is the most decorated combat soldier in American history.  Murphy was wounded three times, fought in nine major campaigns across the European Theatre, and incredibly, survived the war. 

Audie Murphy went on to receive every decoration for valor America has to offer –  including the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

After the war, he gained fame as an author, a musician, and in the movies - a man who lived the “All-American Story” – a man who risked everything in the cause of freedom, who walked with kings but never lost the common touch.

When Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971, people rallied to erect an elaborate memorial on his grave at Arlington. But Murphy’s widow refused. She knew her husband would not want anything special, and today his is a simple standard-issue headstone.