Billy H. Lay was born in 1921 in Boone County, West Virginia. He was the son of Barton Bat Lay and Opal L. Wallace Lay. He entered the military from Boone County, West Virginia. He was a member of
the 59th Coast Artillery serving in the Philippines.

After Bataan surrendered to the Japanese, he became a prisoner of war and was held at Camp O’Donnell and later at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. While being transported to Manchuria on a Japanese ship, he died of disease on October 31, 1942. He was initially buried in Taiwan at Daichoku Cemetery in a grave shared with another American POW, Sergeant Walter Cigoi. After the war, the remains of both men were reinterred at Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong, as their remains had been mixed with those of British prisoners of war.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com