Growing up a Kansas farm girl, Bonnie Loree Mulkey Williams probably never imagined seeing Africa. From alligator skins to camel caravans to natives washing in the town watering hole, Loree absorbed the sounds, sights and smells of her adventure in Africa. She noted in a letter home, “…Thankful we are only stationed in Africa and would not always be here.”

Her prophecy was false for indeed, she remains near Africa today for she never returned from becoming one of the young sacrifices of World War II.

SMALL TOWN GIRL

Her parents had been married four years when Loree arrived on November 16, 1917[i] in Grant County, Oklahoma just before Thanksgiving. Born to Kansas natives Frederick “Fred” Samuel Mulkey, 32, and Nellie Evelyn Wyckoff Mulkey, 23, they named their little one Bonnie Loree. While the name Bonnie means beautiful, they called her Loree, recalled her niece, Nancy Loree Ryan Haile.

The young family lived in Salt Fork, Oklahoma which is about 30 miles south of the Oklahoma-Kansas line. They lived in a home they were renting, and Fred was farming to support the family.[ii]

Loree, the oldest, probably helped to tend to her younger sisters and brother. They were Doris Eleanor Mulkey Lock, 1920, William Rufus Mulkey, 1923, Helen Jean Mulkey Ryan, 1927 and Mary M. Mulkey Stingley[iii], 1930.

Between 1920 and 1923, the family made a move to Kansas, where both parents were from. Both William and Helen were born in Geuda Springs, Kansas.

By 1925[iv], the family had settled 200 miles north of Salt Fork in Beaver, Kansas. They are living in a home they are renting, and Fred is still farming. The family owned a radio they would have used for both news and entertainment. Loree, Doris and William are in school, but Helen and Mary stay home with their mother, Nellie.

Loree, according to her enlistment papers, has finished high school. The 1940 census reports she also attended one year of college.

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

As the war years loom on the horizon, 1940 finds Loree getting married. A February edition of the Blackwell Daily Journal, a newspaper, announces a marriage license was issued to Loree, 23, and Marvin Lee Williams, 30.[v]

The young couple made their home in Arkansas City, Kansas. Arkansas City is about two-hundred miles away from her childhood home and right on the Kansas-Oklahoma line. Loree and Marvin are renting part of a duplex on Summit Street and he is supporting them by working as an attendant in a gas station. Marvin is from Oklahoma and went to school through the eighth grade.[vi] In the 1940 census, she uses her first name Bonnie.

Living in the little town of Arkansas City near her was her sister, Doris, 19, and her husband, Donald Lock, 19. The two sisters lived just 10 blocks apart. Also in Arkansas City was her husband Marvin’s father.[vii] Loree’s youngest sister, Mary, was very close to her and remembers visiting with her in her apartment.[viii]

Back home, Loree’s father is still farming and the younger children, William, Helen, and Mary are in school.

On March 6, 1943, Loree began a new job. She worked in the production control branch of the maintenance department at Strother Field before she enlisted.[ix]

By the time the call comes for women to enlist in the war effort, Loree and Marvin have divorced. She fills out enlistment papers and marks herself as a divorcee and says she is employeed as a clerk.

HER MILITARY STORY

PFC Bonnie Loree Mulkey Williams, service number A-709901, served in the Women’s Army Corp, WACs. Loree enlisted on April 29, 1944 at Strother Field in Winfield, Kansas. She served in the 1202nd Army Air Force Base Unit, WACS. She was one of seven Southern Kansas women sworn in together. Loree was the first woman employee from Strother Field to enter the armed forces.[x]

According to HonorStates.org, the women who were in the 1202nd were older, with an average age of 28, than the usual recruit and were chosen for their “maturity and work experience.”

In November of 1944, Loree was one of 159 WACs in Accra, British West Africa to serve with the Air Transport Command. Their job was to deliver troops and supplies as well as transfer aircraft.[xi]

For a small-town Kansas girl, the sights and sounds of Africa were amazing. Her family has kept a letter sent home titled “My Trip to Kano,” a city in Nigeria. Her letter home is full of the color and character of her day there. She writes:

“… About 03:30, the morning of December 27th, 1944, I was jerked from the world of dreams into a world of reality by someone shouting in my ear. ‘Time to get up and get ready to go.’ It seems that in the army, one never starts anywhere by plane in the daytime…”

A flight carrying WACs took off from Accra and headed to Kano. Loree got a two-hour nap at the beginning of the flight and then an eagle’s eye view of the land. She saw native buildings surrounding small bodies of water and palm trees. Their first day included settling into their quarters, lunch and later the WACs were the guests at a dance given by the enlisted men where Loree reports she nearly danced the soles off her shoes before falling in bed quite late. The next day, they went into the city of Kano. She wrote:

“…we went into the food markets. All types of food were to be seen including sugar, flour and salt. The food is all displayed right out in the open in pans and crocks sat among the children, chickens, goats, dust and flies. We saw the meat market also. The chunks of meat were thrown in pans setting out in the hot sun, crawling with flies, covered with dust and handled by everyone. In the center of the marketplace is a large waterhole. Here the people bathe, launder their clothes if they do, water their animals and drink. There is the most horrible stench imaginable. Unwashed bodies and clothing, animals such as goats, dogs, chickens, cats and donkeys running loose all over the place, rotting food and refuse from the people and animals. There is absolutely no kind of sanitation. The homes are made of mud and straw. They are like a beehive…”

Loree reported watching camel caravans hauling goods. She saw blocks and blocks of peanuts sacked for shipping and all manner of dry goods stacked on platforms made of mud. There were all types of leather goods including snake, lizard and alligator.

“…It was a most interesting tour and gave us a picture of the Africa we studied about in our grammar school…”

The WACs gathered their purchases and started “wearily homeward with the pulsing beat of C-46 engines singing us to sleep.” Loree’s letter from Africa appears in its entirety on the Gallery section of this story.

HER LAST DAY

Six months later, Loree was on another flight out of Accra with 17 other women of the Women’s Army Corps on a normally routine 776- mile[xii] flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xiii], Liberia. The WACs were onboard as they were being transferred to a new assignment. There were scattered showers that morning but no other weather of note.[xiv]

Her plane, piloted by a crew of three[xv], a C-478 #44-76406, disappeared.[xvi]

The plane was last reported over Takoradi, British West Africa, about 150 miles west of Accra, shortly after departure.[xvii]

Little is known about what transpired aboard the plane that day but several calls of “Mayday,” an emergency procedure used as a voice distress signal, were heard. The distress signal was loud and clear, lasting five minutes.[xviii] A search was conducted by aircraft and surface craft over a wide area of the French Ivory Coast.[xix] The search consisted of seven PET’s and British, French, and Native forces, who were informed to search waters and coastline. No sign of the plane was found.

The plane is believed to have crashed into the sea near Takoradi, Ghana.[xx] The Chicago Tribune reported the “[xxi]18 WACs were the first ever reported lost overseas.”

She went missing on May 30, 1945 and was declared dead while missing in action off the coast of Ghana, Africa.[xxii] News of the missing plane made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. The Parsons Sun, a newspaper in Parsons, Kansas, ran the news under the headline “WACs Missing on Plane Hop.”

Her parents were notified via telegram. No details were given at that time but a press release from Washington followed with news of the missing plane. Even in her 90s, Loree’s sister, Mary, clearly remembers the devastation she felt at the news of the loss of her dear sister.[xxiii]

Loree ended her letter home about Africa in this way: “We went to the shower and to bed without too much grumbling to dream of Kano and the Wall City and thankful we are only stationed in Africa and would not always be here.”

Today we know she is indeed always there, somewhere off the Coast of Africa. Loree is one of the MIAs, Missing in Action, of WWII who was never found. More than 72,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from WWII.[xxiv]

Loree was 29.

COMMENDATIONS

Purple Heart

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign[xxv]

MEMORIALS

On June 16, 1945, a memorial service for the missing women was held by the WACs’ leadership in Portman Square in London and over 660 WACs attended.[xxvi]

1945: A gold star was added to the service flag in the sub-depot wood mill at Strother Field in memory of the first woman employee, Bonnie Loree Mulkey Williams, who gave her life in service to the nation. Her star was the third one on the flag, representing the third sacrifice from there.[xxvii]

Loree Williams is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing, an American Battle Monument, North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage Tunisia.

Loree’s niece, Nancy Loree Ryan Haile, was given her Aunt’s middle name. She recalled “My parents wanted to name me after her, but my grandparents didn’t want to be hearing her name all the time, so I just got her middle name for my middle name,”[xxviii]

AFTER HER DEATH

Her brother, William, entered the army in 1947, and also served his country.[xxix]

READ MORE ABOUT THIS MISSING FLIGHT

Read all the stories of the crew and WACs missing on this flight off the coast of Africa.

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.