The McBrayer family donated land for McBrayer City Park in 1983, and its Nature Trail honors Brigadier General James D. McBrayer Jr., a native of Lorena. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1939, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the USMC and assigned to the American Embassy in Peking, China. During World War II, he was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese in China on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, escaped captivity in May 1945, and walked over 700 miles across China to U.S. forces before arriving back in the U.S. in July 1945. After the war he also served in Panama, the UK, the Middle East, Korea, and assignments in the U.S. His decorations included two Legions of Merit, one with Combat “V,” and two Purple Hearts, and after retiring from the USMC in 1965 he became Professor Emeritus of the University System of Georgia.