Forty years passed on 12 August 2008 since USMC Lance Corporal Kenneth Worley, 20-years-old, died in Bo Ban Hamlet, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, earning the young Marine the nation’s Congressional Medal of Honor. His birthplace, Farmington, New Mexico, is planning to dedicate a monument in tribute to his life and heroism on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2009. Ken’s older sister, Betty Sue Peace Worley left Farmington when he was eight-years-old and moved to Modesto, California. She had a son by the name of Ricky Worley. Family has not heard from Betty since the early 1970s, and no one has been able to locate her or Ken’s nephew. It would be fitting for Betty and the Marines of Lima Company, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines who were with him when he died protecting five companions from a grenade to know of the honor to be extended to him. Let the news of this tribute and search for Betty cross the Nation. Anyone who would like information about the dedication ceremony can call Bill Wells, Marine Corps League, at (505) 801-6104 or (505) 324-8155. Bruce Salisbury, the local Farmington historian who has long been advocating for a memorial to Ken, can be contacted at
Terence W. Barrett, PhD Department of Psychology North Dakota State University