George R. “Crook” Clendenen, has been selected as the 2009 West Virginia Coal Festival Grand Marshal.

Clendenen was born in Racine in 1919, where he earned the nickname "Crook" at age 3. It came after Clendenen reportedly caught a couple of teenagers stealing tools from his father's auto garage and blacksmith shop.

"When those boys found out I told on them, they started calling me a crook. The nickname has stuck with me ever since," he said.

Clendenen, 90, was tank commander of the 3rd tank to make land and hit the beach head during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

Just one year prior to the assault on the coast of Omaha Beach, France, Clendenen would drive am M3A1 tank in the 1943 Humphrey Bogart film, “Sahara.”

Although Clendenen's face isn't visible in the movie, the shots of the tank moving through desert terrain were done with him at the helm.

He left the military as a “well decorated” soldier and World War II hero, before returning home to Boone County.

Upon his return, Clendenen is noted as the number one founder of the Racine Volunteer Fire Department, which began in 1973.

Among his many lifetime achievements, Clendenen has been honored as a lifetime member of the Racine Volunteer Fire Department, has a bridge in Racine named for him called the George R. "Crook" Clendenen Bridge, and has been an active Boy Scout member since 1955.