Editing John Peurifoy (section)

==Personal Life and Tragedy==
Peurifoy married Betty Jane Cox in 1936, and they had two sons: John Clinton Peurifoy (born circa 1940, with cerebral palsy) and Daniel Byrd Peurifoy (born 1946). The family faced significant challenges, with Clinton’s disability requiring constant care. A 1957 Time article recounted a Greek royal family anecdote from Peurifoy’s Athens years, where Prince Constantine called Clinton “Jesus’s favorite pupil” for enduring hardship, a sentiment Peurifoy and his son rejected as overly sentimental. 

On August 12, 1955, while serving in Thailand, Peurifoy and Daniel, aged nine, died in a car accident near Hua Hin when their Ford Thunderbird collided with a truck. Clinton, injured in the crash, died in 1959 at age 19. The U.S. government sent a military plane to repatriate their bodies, a decision criticized for its cost but approved by Eisenhower. Peurifoy, Daniel, and Clinton are buried together at Arlington National Cemetery. Betty Jane Cox Peurifoy (1912–1998) later married Arthur Chidester Steward and established the John E. Peurifoy Memorial Foundation in Thailand to fund Fulbright Scholars.