He was a national champion track and cross country runner at Yale University and joined the United States Marine Corps after his graduation in 1917.

Overton's strategy was to allow another runner to set the early pace but to finish strong, and he ran with an "air of quiet determination".

[9] In January he won the Rodman Wanamaker mile and a half event in the Millrose Games in New York City.

[9] He placed third at the 1916 National Cross Country Championships behind Ville Kyrönen and Hannes Kolehmainen,[13] both Finnish Olympic medalists.

[16] Later in March, he lost in a widely discussed race against Joie Ray at the games of the John Wanamaker Commercial Institute at Madison Square Garden.

[3] In May, General George Barnett called for recommendations from one college from every state for ten men to be given temporary commissions in the Marine Corps.

[18] Overton was training at Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center before moving to Marine Corps Base Quantico on July 18, 1917,[1] where he entered officer school.

He graduated from officers school in September,[3] and his promotion to the rank of second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve was confirmed that same month.

He graduated at the head of his class on May 31, 1918, and was sent on June 1 for observation with the Forty Second Regiment of French Chasseurs stationed in the Vosges Mountains.

While valiantly leading his platoon in an attack against the enemy, under severe machine-gun and artillery fire, Second Lieutenant Overton was mortally wounded.

[3][21][22] After the battle, Yale classmate and fellow Nashvillean, Samuel W. Meek, found Overton's body and buried it in a wheatfield about 2,000 yards from Vierzy.

[3] He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm from the French Army and was frequently memorialized in poetry, including a piece by Grantland Rice called "A Marine Comes Home".