A Marine Corps veteran with Edmonds connections — who lost his life in Vietnam while saving his comrades — has finally been returned to his hometown of Farmington, New Mexico, and not surprisingly, Edmonds-based artist Michael Reagan had a hand in the process.

Here’s the story, as told by Jim Traner, a fellow Vietnam veteran from Edmonds:

Lance Corporal Kenneth Lee Worley was a Medal of Honor recipient: He died in Vietnam saving fellow Marines. Worley’s name is also on the veterans memorial located outside the Edmonds Historical Museum.

Before enlisting in the Marine Corps, Worley was driving trucks in California, and while in Modesto, a couple took him under their wing and became his foster parents, Traner explains. “While Kenneth was in the Marine Corp, his foster parents moved to Edmonds and were divorced or separated soon after. Kenneth may have stopped by while on leave, but he never lived in Edmonds.”

And there is the other Edmonds connection. Michael Reagan, who creates portraits of fallen soldiers through his Fallen Heroes Project, had sketched Worley’s portrait for the Edmonds-based Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8870. Traner did some searching and discovered Farmington was Worley’s home town. “So we made arrangements to get the framed art to them for his family,” Reagan said. “They in turn created a beautiful memorial/museum to Kenneth to display the portrait permanently, because family was difficult to find.”

His Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:

LANCE CORPORAL KENNETH L. WORLEY
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Machine Gunner with Company L, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division in action against enemy forces in the Republic of Vietnam. After establishing a night ambush position in a house in the Bo Ban Hamlet of Quang Nam Province, security was set up and the remainder of the patrol members retired until their respective watch. During the early morning hours of 12 August 1968, the Marines were abruptly awakened by the platoon leader’s warning that “Grenades” had landed in the house. Fully realizing the inevitable result of his actions, Lance Corporal Worley, in a valiant act of heroism instantly threw himself upon the grenade nearest him and his comrades, absorbing with his own body, the full and tremendous force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from serious injury and possible loss of life although five of his fellow Marines incurred minor wounds as the other grenades exploded. Lance Corporal Worley’s gallant actions upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Worley’s portrait resides at the Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, and Farmington is now working to complete “The Worley Bronze,” which is being sculpted to honor the Medal of Honor recipient.