Marine finds late Kansas City WWII veteran's family, Medal of Honor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In 2009, while reading a book on seven Black service members who’d had their heroism finally recognized with the military’s highest award for valor, Marine First Sergeant Robert Gray learned one of the men, Army Private First Class Willy James Jr. hailed from Kansas City, Missouri.
He also learned that when the World War II African American honorees received their Medals of Honor at the White House in 1997, six posthumously, PFC James was represented by his young widow and her family. His immediate family could not be located.
PFC James had married Valencia just weeks before being sent overseas in a segregated Black unit. Discrimination, it turns out, was a part of military life too.
But troops were needed on the front lines, and PFC James was among Black soldiers who volunteered to fight. And so, they were sent to Germany to join white units as reinforcements. On April 8, 1945, PFC James volunteered again, to be a scout drawing fire so the enemy troops could be located. Then volunteered again to lead his men into a small German town to take back the village. He did, and when he tried to rescue a gravely wounded platoon leader, a German sniper cut his life short.
A telegram to his mother was her only condolence: her son had been killed in action. She died in 1967, heartbroken.
“We kinda’ failed that where she didn't know the historical event that happened to her son,” Robert Gray says.
When she passed, she was unaware of his heroics, which wouldn’t truly be known until a study determined some Black heroes had been denied the Medal of Honor, due to discrimination and racism.
Congress moved to right that wrong, and in 1997, six of the seven men, including PFC James, were honored in death. A seventh survivor received his Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony.
But a number of things conspired to make finding PFC James family impossible: from census records that failed to record a name change, to no known photographs or other records of the young hero.
“You don't tell a Marine that it's going to be hard,” Gray said. “And I don't think you're going to be able to do it.”
Gray was on his own mission as a retired Marine. Find PFC James Kansas City family.
He found the Medal of Honor, by finding his widow’s family. She had died in 2002, so they sent Gray the medal which was welcomed in a 2023 ceremony by the Black Archives of Mid-America.
Gray continued his quest, and it turns out, so was a blood relative of James.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Brenda Smith said. She was also working to find out if her sister perhaps had a brother who had been killed in action.
“I thought maybe that’s momma’s brother, because she always said she had a brother named Willie.”
Gray continued searching genealogy sites, other records, and got ever closer. The ceremony of the Medal of Honor’s return had caused others to wonder: could that be PFC Willy James?
"That's where we started making the connection,” Gray says. “I received an email from one of the granddaughters that her great grandmother could be PFC James mother. And once she sent that email to me, I knew right off the bat that we had found the sister."
He had. Elizabeth Baldwin, or Jossie, as her family had known her. Now 103 years old.
So, the Black Archives planned another ceremony. This time the Medal of Honor had a home and local extended family of the honoree would finally be able to honor their relative, and a sister could hold the medal herself. A portrait of PFC James had also been discovered, and it and the medal are now on display in the Black Archives Museum.
“It was very important that she find closure of what happened to her brother,” a relieved retired Marine said following the ceremony. “Mission complete.”
The display is open to the public at the Blach Archives of Mid-America near the Historic 18th and Vine District. For museum hours and other information, click here.