Born on an Ellis County farm, Jack Lummus attended school at Alma and Ennis and studied at Baylor University on an athletics scholarship. He played minor league baseball in Texas and football for the New York Giants before joining the U.S. Marines in 1942. On February 19, 1945, he landed on Iwo Jima with the Fifth Marine Division in the first wave of assault troops. On March 8, after fighting for two days and nights without respite, he and his rifle platoon slowly advanced toward a complex of pillboxes before Japanese forces halted them. Though wounded by two grenade explosions, Lummus single-handedly destroyed three enemy emplacements before stepping on a land mine and suffering fatal wounds. His Congressional Medal of Honor honored his conspicuous gallantry and tenacious perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds.