Posted by Doug Beers on September 18, 2016, 5:53 pm
I am looking for relatives of Newman Frederick McKinney, whom I believe served on the MS Day Star. I found a framed Shellback certificate for him dated 2/11/43 and would like to get it to his family. The information I have indicated he may have lived in Benzie County, Michigan around 1972.
By great coincidence, my late father, a U.S. Army infantryman, was aboard DAY STAR on a voyage from San Francisco to Guadalcanal, possibly on the same voyage that you report that Newman Frederick McKinney was also aboard.
According to information I was able to find, there was a Newman F. McKinney who resided in Benzie County, Michigan. Specifically he may have lived in the tiny town of Almira, Michigan, in that county. (By another coincidence, my brother and sister-in-law recently purchased property in Almira for a vacation home. My family is from Michigan.) He also had a rural address in Empire, Michigan, which is in the next county to the north, Leelanau County, and is about 16 miles from Almira.
Here is an obituary I found for Newman F. McKinney, published October 20, 1977, in the Traverse City Record-Eagle:
"Newman F. McKinney, 73, of Route 1, Empire [Michigan], died Wednesday [October 19, 1977] at Leelanau Memorial Hospital in Northport [Michigan] after an extended illness. He is survived by one daughter, Mrs. James (Patricia) Leymon of Albuquerque, New Mexico; a cousin, Mrs. Gene (Arlene) Luppino of Pontiac [Michigan]; and two grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jennie, in 1976. Mr. McKinney was born January 3, 1904, in Pontiac [Michigan]. He made his home in the Traverse City [Michigan] area for most of his life. He was a commander in the U.S. Navy and a veteran of World War II. He worked for the Michigan State Highway Department as a civil engineer and retired in 1966. The funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday [October 22, 1977] at the Hibbard Funeral Chapel. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit."
I will send a private e-mail to you with additional information.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Thanks for your expression of sympathy. It's true, my father made an Honor Flight to Washington, DC, in May 2015. I was able to accompany him and my brother as the Honor Flight participants made their way to the various local monuments and memorials, in particular the World War II Memorial. My father died less than four months later, on September 4, 2015.
He was a quiet man who lived a long life (age 94 when he died), was married nearly 69 years to the love of his life until my Mom died a year before him, raised three children who I would like to think rarely embarrassed him, enjoyed the love and respect and noise of five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, loved his God, his family and his country in that order, died in the house that he himself had built for his family, and honorably did his duty when he was called upon to do so. If that doesn't define a hero, what does?