Olympian Cornelius Lonzo “Paul” Burdette (November 6, 1878 – February 28, 1955) was born on his family farm in Sandstone (Summers County) to William Henry Harrison Burdette and Sidney Ward Burdette.

He was a career military man, serving variously in the Army and Marines, from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to 1937. He eventually attained the rank of major. In 1908, he received the Marines’ Distinguished Marksmen Medal, the corps’s highest award for marksmanship.

In 1912, he was serving in the West Virginia National Guard as a rifle instructor when the National Rifle Association chose him for the six-member rifle team at the fifth modern Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Using a 1903 model Army Springfield, he scored 288 of 300 points, leading the entire field and pacing his team to a gold medal. Burdette was the first West Virginian to earn an Olympic gold medal, which was presented to him personally by Sweden’s King Gustavus V.

During the same Olympics, he also competed in three individual events, placing 8^th in the 600 meter free rifle (any position); 21^st in the 300 meter free rifle (three positions); and 52^nd in the 600 meter free rifle (three positions) competitions.

In 1954, Governor William Marland presented him with the West Virginia Distinguished Service Medal. His citation credited him with being “a genius in the firing and design of weapons.”

He was married to the former Marie E. Good and died in Charleston. In 2024, a section of county route 20 in Sandstone was renamed, in Burdette’s honor, the Major Cornelius Burdette Memorial Road.