James Bethel Gresham Funeral

Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville was officially listed as the first American to die in WWI. He was buried in France in November 1917. In July 1921, Gresham's body was brought home to Indiana. After lying in state in the rotunda of the statehouse in Indianapolis, the body was returned to Evansville. The photograph shows Gresham's casket being carried into the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Coliseum, where it laid in state prior to a special community tribute on July 15, 1921. James B. Gresham is buried in Evansville.Caption: The past summer marked the return to Evansville, his home town, of the body of James Bethel Gresham, the first American Soldier who was killed in France in the World War, November 4, 1917. His body was placed in state in the Coliseum, as the upper oval insert shows; the lower picture is a view as the casket was being taken into the Coliseum at Evansville