Clifford Grady Rhodes

Clifford Grady Rhodes grew up hard and died young.

Originally from Virginia, Rhodes was one of five children born to Ernest and Ida Mae Rhodes.

Along with siblings Marcie, Jo Anne, Vera Mae and Ernest, Jr., he spent his childhood in Virginia, working at his uncle Grady's oyster house.

Shortly after Grady Rhodes answered an advertisement to oyster the then-plentiful Apalachicola Bay, Ernest Rhodes, a former truck driver, joined his brother in Apalachicola.

Clifford Rhodes worked with his father on the oyster bar and stayed with his uncle's family when times were tough.

First cousin Mary Ewell, who lives in Virginia, regarded Rhodes more like a brother than a cousin.

She remembered him as a sweet-natured kid with a good sense of humor, who tolerated her father's frequent pranks.

"My dad used to tease him all the time and he used to love to tease him with the Cool Whip in the can," remembered Ewell. "When he was small, maybe six- or seven-years-old, dad filled his mouth up with Cool Whip. It was going everywhere, down his face, and bless his heart, he was still laughing. He was a good sport about anything. He was a good boy."

Ewell believed Rhodes joined the Army to escape his difficult home life.  She drove him to a base in Dover, Delaware, and he departed for Vietnam on Feb. 23, 1966.

Rhodes was killed less than three months later, in South Vietnam, on May 17, 1966. He was 19 years old.

Ewell believes he was shot through the heart because the Bible he carried in his pocket had been pierced by a bullet and was covered in blood.

Ewell described the war as a "waste of lives," and her cousin's death as senseless.

"We lost a lot for nothing," she said.

Though Ewell was close to all her cousins, Rhodes, in his short life, earned a special place in her heart.

"You always have your pick," said Ewell. "I loved them all, but he was my pick."