Not afraid of hard work, Bill McKinney’s lumber industry family saw Bill, a sister and a brother leave to defend their country. Only one returned.

Bill McKinney was the third child born to Francis “Frank” Marion McKinney and Nellie Rosetta “Rose” McKinney on October 29, 1904. Frank was 28 when he married Rose, who was 14. The two had each completed the fifth grade.[i] Although a look at their marriage license will show that Rose claimed to be 18.[ii] Both had been born in Ohio. The couple made their home in Garden, Michigan where Frank was a farmer at the time of the marriage.[iii] During their marriage, Rose gave birth to ten children but lost two as infants.

Known as Bill, rather than his formal name of William Henry McKinney, he came into a family that had already suffered the loss of a baby. Their first child born in 1905, Mary Jane McKinney, lived but a day. In 1906, the couple had Florence Minerva McKinney Graleske. Then “Bill” McKinney was born on November 22, 1907.[iv] Bill reported on his draft card that he was born in Bryne, Ohio. It is not known how long the family was located there.

In 1909, they lost another little girl. Goldie May McKinney lived only two weeks.

At least for a while after the loss of Goldie, Rose, Bill’s mother, lived with her older sister and her family. In 1910, she was living with Andrew and Martha Williams and their children.

After that, the family continued to grow. In 1914, another boy joined the family. Edward Theodore McKinney was born in Seneca, Michigan. Alice Pauline McKinney, who went by Pauline, arrived in 1917. Bill, at age 10, was finishing the fifth grade and after that he did not attend school.[v]

In 1920, the McKinney family of six were living in a rental home in Garden, Michigan, which is located on Lake Michigan. Frank was part of the area logging industry. He worked as a laborer in the woods. The family continued to grow. After Pauline, came Juanita Viola McKinney Leaf, 1922, and Monica Lucile McKinney Gwinn Conners, 1924. In 1926, Edward finishes the sixth grade, one year more than his parents and brother and he leaves school too.

In 1926, the family grows in a new way. Bill’s oldest sister, Florence, 20, is married to Martin Graleske, a contractor from Duluth, Minnesota. Bill, age 19, is an official witness to the wedding officiated by the probate court judge.[vi]

Another girl, Lillian “Lillie” Madonna McKinney Ocha Lee[vii] came along in 1928. It was also the year the family moved from Nahma to Big Bay.[viii] Twenty-four years after she gave birth to her first baby, Rose had Herbert Alfred McKinney in 1930.

The year Bill’s brother was born, 1930, the family was living in a rental home in Powell, Michigan, which sits on the shores of Lake Superior. It is about 115 miles from Garden, where they used to live. Florence was no longer living at home. Bill was the oldest sibling at home, a young adult at 22. Rose was caring for children ages 16, 12, 8, 6, 2 and an infant. It was probably a great help to Rose that Pauline finished eighth grade that year and then quit school.[ix] It’s easy imagining them gathering around the radio they owned for entertainment, news and listening to baseball games[x] in the evenings. Both Frank and Bill worked as laborers in a sawmill.[xi]

HIS LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

As the country heads toward the war years, Bill, 33, is now living at home with his family. In 1940, the family still lives in Powell, Michigan. In addition to his parents and Bill, in the house are Edward, 25, Juanita, 17, Monica, 16, Lillie, 11 and Herbert, 9, with the youngest four still being in school. His oldest sister, Florence, and her husband, Martin, also live in Powell with their five children.[xii]

All the men in the family are working. Frank is a W.P.A. worker, which is the Workers Progress Administration, an employment program started by President Roosevelt and known especially for its public works. Bill is a lumber scaler in a lumber mill where he makes about $18 a week.[xiii] A lumber scale measures the timber for volume and then grades the wood for quality. Edward is working in Marquette, Michigan, 30 miles away, at the Kerry and Hanson Flooring Company. The 1940 census says that Pauline was also working but her job is simply described as a “new worker.”[xiv]

Sometime after 1940, Pauline moves away from her family, traveling nearly 300 miles to settle in Marquette County, Wisconsin. She was working as a waitress.[xv] Bill also moves away because at the time of his enlistment, he writes that his residence is in Lee, Illinois.[xvi]

Brother Edward enlists as a private at Fort Sheridan, becoming a warrant officer on November 28, 1941.[xvii] He becomes a staff sergeant in the army.[xviii]

HIS MILITARY STORY

Bill takes a cue from his younger brother, Edward. He comes back home from Illinois and enlists in Marquette County, Michigan on December 8, 1942. His service number was 16088784.[xix]

William Henry McKinney was a U.S. Army Sergeant with the 9th Infantry Division, 47th Infantry Regiment.[xx] He was in the 2nd Battalion in Company F.[xxi] As is the case with many army men, he is moved around a great deal. He was at Camp Wolters, Texas, Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, Camp Carson, Colorado, Camp Roberts, California, and Fort Meade, Maryland. He then headed overseas where he wrote home from England and was later in Germany.

In the spring of 1944, Bill’s little sister, Pauline, decides to join her brothers in the war effort. She enlists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin becoming a WAC. Meanwhile, his brother, Edward was serving in New Guinea with the U. S. Army Engineers.

In Bill’s last letter home, mailed in September of 1944, he shared that he had been promoted to sergeant. It was the last his family would hear from him.[xxii]

BATTLE OF THE HURTGEN FOREST

In September of 1944, the 9th Infantry Division began attacks in The Hurtgen Forest. A rather wild area, the forest has rough ridges, slopes, and hills. The mission was to take control of dams to prevent the Germans from blowing them up and flooding the grounds. The battle was brutal. Hidden in the fog, among the dense trees, were massive German fortifications. At sometime during this intense fighting, William Henry McKinney was wounded. He died on October 8, 1944 from those wounds. He had been overseas for about 3 months before he died.

When Sgt. William H. McKinney was wounded in Hurtgen Forest in Germany, news was slow to reach his sister Pauline, a WAC stationed in Africa. By the time she heard he was wounded and wrote back home to her mother, he had already passed away from his wounds.[xxiii] In letters shared at the website in-honored-glory.info, Pauline wrote home about Bill’s death, saying “I never once thought that could happen to us. The war seems closer than ever now. I feel as you do about Bill not suffering. He wouldn't (have) wanted to live if he was all crippled.”[xxiv] Eight months later, PFC Alice Pauline McKinney is also killed.

Bill was 36.

COMMENDATIONS

Purple Heart

Combat Infantryman Badge

Marksmanship Badge

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign[xxv]

MEMORIALS

Sergeant William H. McKinney, a Purple Heart recipient, is buried at Henri-Chapelle American Military Cemetery, Belgium.[xxvi]

HIS GRAVE

The McKinney siblings are memorialized on the McKinney family grave marker of their parents, Frank and Nellie R. McKinney, at Big Bay Cemetery in Big Bay, Michigan. Both Bill and Pauline are remembered with their names and the message “Killed in Action WWII.”[xxvii]

AFTER HIS DEATH

Private First Class Alice Pauline McKinney, who served in the 1202nd Army Air Force Base Unit, WACS, was on a flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xxviii], Liberia when her plane disappeared over the sea. She was missing in action on May 30, 1945 and was declared dead.[xxix]

Edward Theodore McKinney suffered from malaria during his WWII tour of New Guinea. He survived and returned home to marry, have a family, and live until the age of 85.

Herbert Alfred McKinney was also a U.S. Veteran. Too young for WWII, he served in the United States Navy in the 1950s.

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

[i]https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01787-00467?pId=83404152

[ii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/9093/images/41326_342300-00174?pId=3394241

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/9093/images/41326_342300-00174?pId=3394241

[iv] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=60815

[v] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01787-00467?pId=83404152

[vi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/9093/images/41326_342134-02809?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=2e424480fc28aa76fab658dfeb729fef&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj367&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=5005957

[vii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/41606264:60901?indiv=1&tid=&pid=&queryId=e81acbc75e468dc2cb47726de8db2937&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj401&_phstart=successSource

[viii] http://www.in-honored-glory.info/html/stories/ifmckinney.htm

[ix] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01787-00467?pId=83404152

[x] http://www.in-honored-glory.info/html/stories/ifmckinney.htm

[xi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4609250_00510?pId=90708435

[xii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01787-00477?usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=83404928

[xiii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01787-00467?pId=83404152

[xiv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44017_06_00060-01896?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=267956387

[xv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56248934/alice-pauline-mckinney

[xvi] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=7537656&tid=&pid=&queryId=209113fb3dacc61346ad325fd0bf1570&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj409&_phstart=successSource

[xvii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=7535757&tid=&pid=&queryId=2e3f46ebd39e18f5ce271cae34839847&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj382&_phstart=successSource

[xviii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8750&h=5137140&ssrc=pt&tid=16855691&pid=29798769069&usePUB=true

[xix] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=60815

[xx] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=60815

[xxi] https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/en/american-war-cemetery-henri-chapelle-m/60774-mc-kinney-william-h

[xxii] http://www.in-honored-glory.info/html/stories/ifmckinney.htm

[xxiii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=4283&h=96385&tid=&pid=&queryId=566f5bb00c69a43d239f316f0c300405&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj374&_phstart=successSource

[xxiv] http://www.in-honored-glory.info/html/stories/ifmckinney.htm

[xxv] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=60815

[xxvi] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=4283&h=96385&tid=&pid=&queryId=566f5bb00c69a43d239f316f0c300405&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj374&_phstart=successSource

[xxvii] https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2012/121/37239231_133587896800.jpg

[xxviii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[xxix] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

William H McKinney