Anonymous et. al.,
To clear this up, Audie Murphy was indeed the most decorated combat soldier of WW2. And this is probably the biggest factor in the decision to rename Newport Rd. to Normandy Rd. However, Audie Murphy did not fight on the beach at Normandy, at least not as part of the D-Day invasion. To the best of my knowledge, he didn't fight on Normandy at all.
Audie Murphy was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, U.S. 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. His division was in Italy during the D-Day invasion. When Audie Murphy landed in France, it was with this division and it occurred on August 15, 1944 as part of Operation Dragoon, the second part of Operation Overlord; more than 5 weeks after the Normandy invasion. More specifically, the landing happened near St. Tropez, on the other side of France, some 550 miles away from the famed D-Day invasion location.
While I'm not against this section of Newport Road being renamed to Normandy Road, and while I'm all for doing something to honor Audie Murphy, I do hope that whoever made the decision to rename it Normandy didn't make the decision based thinking Audie Murphy was part of the Normandy invasion.