Private Burke Fenton Shiner, 22, was killed in action in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge on January 11, 1945. He had only been in Europe about a month when killed while serving with the 331st Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division.

His unit had one of the highest casualty rates of any U.S. Army unit during World War II. The 83rd Division lost 3,620 men killed in action, ninth most of the Army’s 68 Divisions. More than 1,000 of those were from Private Shiner’s 331st Regiment. More than 40 men from his regiment were killed on the day he died.

He was born January 1, 1923, in Price, Utah, the son of Henry Leslie “Less” Shiner and Iva E. Fenton Shiner. The family moved to Altonah, Utah when he was 14 and he went to school there and in Altamont.

After high school he worked on his father’s farm and then went to Montana to work in the mines. He married Beverly Dawn Holder of Mt. Emmons, Utah in Butte, Montana on Valentine’s Day 1943 and they had a son, Billy Burke Shiner.

He was inducted on April 8, 1944 and did his training in Georgia. He went home on leave in October 1944. A newspaper article reported that a party attended by 90 people was held in his honor with stories, jokes, music, dancing, and refreshments. He left for Europe in December and was killed in January.

A memorial service was held in the Roosevelt, Utah Ward Hall of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on March 25, 1945. His remains were initially buried in Belgium and returned to the States after the war. He is interred at the Riverdale Cemetery in Stevensville, Montana.

His widow remarried, had three more sons, and died in Utah at the age of 94 on March 25, 2020, 75 years to the day after her son’s memorial service.

His son, Billy Burke Shiner, died in 2011. His mother passed away in 1968 and his mother in 1980.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54018465/burke-fenton-shiner

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79322980/billy-burke-shiner

http://kb8tt.net/brothers/index.html

Shiner, Burke Fenton