Boston Dedicates Hero Square to Fenway Soldier Killed in 1944 Lorraine Campaign

BOSTON — July 22, 2026 — Boston dedicates Hero Square at Westland Avenue and Hemingway Street to World War II Private Lester A. Burton. Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilor Ed Flynn, and Fenway district Councilor Kenzie Bach joined Burton's surviving sister, Dolores, and family members Tuesday for the ceremony, which was presided over by Veterans Services Commissioner John Santiago. Burton enlisted in the Army in September 1942, served with the 80th Infantry Division, 318th Infantry Regiment, as part of Patton's Third Army, and died September 8, 1944, from wounds sustained during the Lorraine Campaign along the Moselle River in France; he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. The Boston City Council proclamation formally orders a plaque at the intersection, noting he "died fighting for his country" and was a "private in the 80th Infantry Division, 318th Infantry Regiment." Dolores Burton, the last surviving sibling of five brothers and a sister who served or supported the war effort, told the gathering her brother had no grave in Boston — he rests at the American military cemetery at Epinal in the Vosges Mountains of France — making the permanent street designation the family's only local memorial.