Cherokee County is associated here with the lives of Francis L. Sampson, Royal C. Johnson, Ben F. Laposky, and Harold "Harry" McManus. Sampson, born in Cherokee in 1912, became a Catholic priest and Army chaplain, served with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, jumped into France on D-Day, was captured while tending wounded Americans, later endured capture again during the Battle of the Bulge and imprisonment in Germany, returned to service in Korea, and in 1967 became the Army's Chief of Chaplains with the rank of Major General before later leading the USO; he died in 1996. Johnson, born in Cherokee in 1882, became a lawyer, South Dakota public official, and member of the United States House of Representatives, then enlisted to fight in World War I despite having voted against declaring war on Germany, was severely wounded in combat in France in September 1918 while helping fellow soldiers, received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre with gold star, resumed his seat in Congress after the war, sponsored legislation creating a federal charter for the American Legion, and died in Washington, D.C., in 1939. Laposky, born near Cherokee in 1914, served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a map draftsman, was wounded in a Japanese bombing raid in the Solomon Islands, returned home disabled in 1944, and went on to gain wide recognition for his art, including his Oscillons, with work appearing in many publications and exhibitions before he died in Cherokee in 2000. McManus, born in Montana in 1920 and a Cherokee High School graduate, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War, survived the sinking of the USS Houston and nearly four years in a Japanese prison camp, later lived and worked in Cherokee, remained active in veterans' organizations, and died there in 2010.