As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, and with thoughts of the 80th anniversary of VE Day fresh in our minds, we should remember those families that lost multiple members during World War II. In Marquette County several families lost two sons, among them the Lukkarinens of Negaunee, the Kameckis of Marquette, and the Youngs of Marquette, who lost two sons and a son in law.
But only one family lost a son and a daughter to the war.
The McKinney family of Big Bay actually sent three of their children off to serve during World War II. Edward was serving with the Army Corps of Engineers in the South Pacific and William was a member of the 9th Infantry Division in Europe, while Alice "Pauline" McKinney was a WAC, a member of the Women's Army Corps, tasked with doing everything from office work to washing vehicles in the motor pool.
Bill, who grew up a big Detroit Tigers fan, spent most of 1943 stateside, going through basic training and working his way through the ranks. Like many drafted soldiers of the era, he sent letters home to his parents talking about being shuttled between camps, complaining about the food they were served, and remarking about all of the "different kinds of people" he was meeting as he was hopscotching the US.
Bill ended up a sergeant in the 47th Infantry Regiment, heading to Europe just after the Allied invasion of Normandy and joining an outfit that had been fighting overseas since Africa. In late September 1944 the regiment became one of the first Allied units to enter the German homeland, capturing the city of Roetgen. A few days later the unit was attempting to take the small logging town of Schevenhutte when McKinney was hit by enemy fire. Bill died a day later from the wounds he received.
Upon hearing the news, his sister Pauline wrote home, telling her mother "Dear Mom, I received your letter Sunday. Bill's death sure was a shock to me. I didn't expect it at all. I never once thought that could happen to us. The war seems closer than ever now...My dear...Ed and I will soon be home. Don't worry, we will both come home safe and sound."
The two surviving McKinney siblings made it through the rest of the war relatively unscathed. When the Germans surrendered in May 1945 Pauline was stationed at Accra, in what is now the country of Ghana, on Africa's Gold Coast. By all accounts, she enjoyed her assignment overseas and looked forward to more service.
However, her life wasn't all Army all the time. She enjoyed the African beaches and found herself meeting fellow American service members. In fact, in one letter home she told her mother that "I met a very nice sailor from South Carolina. He was 6 feet, one-half inch. Brown curly hair, brown eyes. Danced like a dream and seemed to be a gentleman. Now that is the kind of man I could fall for. If there wasn't a war going on and everything changing."
Two days after she mailed that letter Pauline McKinney boarded a C-47 transport plane heading for London and a new assignment. The plane in which she was riding crashed into the Atlantic, killing all aboard. The aircraft was never found, and the 18 WACs on the plane were the only members of the Women's Army Corps to be lost while overseas.
Bill McKinney is buried in the Henri Chapelle American Military Cemetery in Belgium. Pauline is listed on the tablet of missing in the Carthage Military Cemetery in Tunisia. Brother & sister are both also remembered on the family headstone in the Big Bay Cemetery.