MMLC William James Downey, WWII: Died on ship off West Coast
The headstone of late Motor Machinist’s Mate Chief Petty
Officer William James Downey of 79 North Buckhout Street,
Irvington, is shown at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The headstone,
which was ordered by his widow Marjorie, says he was born
on Feb. 27, 1906. However his World War II registration document
written by him, stated he was born a year earlier, 1905.
Officer William James Downey of 79 North Buckhout Street,
Irvington, is shown at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The headstone,
which was ordered by his widow Marjorie, says he was born
on Feb. 27, 1906. However his World War II registration document
written by him, stated he was born a year earlier, 1905.
Motor Machinist’s Mate Chief Petty Officer William James Downey, U.S. Naval Reserve, like many World War II veterans, had one or more brothers who also fought in a world war. But when Downey’s older brothers Daniel and Jeremiah fought in theirs, it was just known as The Great War.
It wouldn’t be called World War I until after World War II began in 1939.
William was the youngest over a spread of 19 years of the seven children born to Irish immigrant John P. Downey and Massachusetts-born Ellen “Nellie” (Kerrigan) Downey, the daughter of Irish immigrants. He came to Irvington as a toddler, having been born in his mother’s hometown of Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb and immigration hub in the latter half of the 19th century.
John P. was 10 years older than Nellie and had emigrated from British Ireland to the Boston area in 1884. The two would marry soon after and welcome son John J. in 1886. Daniel J. would follow in 1888, Jeremiah F. in 1892, David in 1893, Mary in 1896 and Katherine in 1899. William was born on Feb. 27, 1905, although the headstone on his grave at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery lists his birth year as 1906, apparently an error made on the application form for the stone by his widow, Marjorie, in late 1945.
The family came to Irvington between 1905 and 1910 to take advantage of work opportunities in the Gilded Age great estates of the village. And the Downeys did just that. They settled in an apartment in a three-family house at 22 North Astor Street, back then still named just “A” street. It was only steps away from the Lord & Burnham Co. greenhouse and boiler manufacturing plant at the corner of South Astor and Main streets.
The greenhouses were the playthings of the rich and famous and dad John P. Downey and sons John J., Daniel and Jeremiah all worked at Lord & Burnham. Fourth-born son David worked on one of the nearby estates as a gardener.
By 1920 the family was living in another multi-family apartment building, 17 Main Street on its northeast corner with Buckhout Street. By 1930, John Sr. had died and Nellie was living at 17 Main with Daniel, Jeremiah and William. Jeremiah and William were both working as chauffeurs for estate owners and Daniel drove for a trucking company. By 1940, William had moved to his brother John’s house at 79 South Buckhout Street in the young Spiro Park neighborhood. That single family home, which still stands, housed John, his wife Mary F., their five children — 3 girls and two boys ranging in age from 18 to 26.
John was very well known throughout the village via his job as the Irvington Volunteer Fire Department’s longtime paid driver — or chauffeur, as the post was called. William also served as a paid fire department chauffeur at the time, but left for Labrador in early 1942, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, to take part in an unnamed U.S. War Department project. William was one of 25 firefighters from Irvington to serve in the war, and the only one to give his life in service.
William Downey was a candidate for election as fire chief in 1939, but lost to five-term incumbent chief Norman Morrell by a vote of 32-17.
William had a limited education, quitting school after completing the eighth grade. After that he worked odd jobs before winning a position as a chauffeur for the landed country gentry of the village. By the late 1930s, he was working as a night watchman for the Hudson House Co-Op Apartment complex near the Ardsley-on-Hudson railroad station.
He left Labrador and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves on Sept. 1, 1942. He was single and 37 — a bit long in the tooth for a new Navy seaman — at the time, and been assigned to U.S. Naval Training Station Newport, Rhode Island. By November 1944 he was assigned to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Virginia.
He was a qualified Motor Machinist’s Mate which meant that he’d find a military niche in the engine rooms of any ships to which he’d be assigned. Nothing much was reported about his Navy career until his wife Marjorie, living with her relatives at home in Syracuse, was informed of his death in early April 1945 from the Department of the Navy. It said little more than he had died suddenly at sea aboard his ship somewhere off the coast of southern California. It was later learned that the date of his death was March 31, 1945.
USS LSM-355 is moored at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Oct. 23, 1953, while being prepared for decommissioning and laying up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Motor Machinist's Mate Chief Petty Officer William J. Downey of Irvington was aboard the LSM-355 at sea when he died on March 31, 1945. Because of the 3 or more hour time difference, his East-based family was told he died on April 1. (U.S. National Archives photo)
His widow said she'd spoken to him several hours before his death and believed he was headed to Pearl Harbor. His brother, John, said he believed William had been in the vicinity of San Diego before heading to sea. Most believed the site of his death was near San Diego, but no more information was made available.
It remains unclear if he died in an accident aboard ship or from natural causes.
William Downey had married in about 1943 and was survived by his widow, Helen Marjorie (Coote) Downey, 34, who was living with her family in Syracuse at the time of his death. His widow, who went by Marjorie, had a six-month-old son with him, named David apparently in honor of William's older brother who predeceased him. William was also stepfather to Marjorie's 13-year-old daughter Helen Joan (Joan) Moore, from a 1929 marriage to a Joseph Francis Moore in Syracuse that had ended in divorce.
When William’s body was returned from California, it lay in repose at Vanderbilt Funeral Home in Tarrytown. A requiem Mass was held in the late chief petty officer's honor at his Irvington parish, Immaculate Conception, and burial followed with full military honors by Irvington Post 2911 Veterans of Foreign Wars and its auxiliary at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery a little more than a week after his death.
We do know that William did not die as the result of an attack on his ship, the USS LSM-335, LSM shorthand for Landing Ship Medium. The ship was never reported to have been attacked by an enemy vessel and he was not reported to have been awarded the Purple Heart.
We also know that his widow was likely only partially correct in guessing her husband's destination at the time. We know now that LSM-335 was headed to Okinawa, Japan in support of the U.S. amphibious offensive on the island that began on April 1, 1945. The LSM-335 was likely involved in resupply and reinforcement efforts and arrived at Okinawa on April 17, 1945.
Also, the ship must have returned his remains to California by returning to port or handing his remains over to another ship or plane because the body arrived back in Irvington six days after his death and Pearl Harbor could only have been reached by his ship, underway at full speed for all 2,616 miles, in seven days if the ship did stop at Pearl Harbor en route to Okinawa
William Downey had married in about 1943 and was survived by his widow, Helen Marjorie (Coote) Downey, 34, who was living with her family in Syracuse at the time of his death. His widow, who went by Marjorie, had a six-month-old son with him, named David apparently in honor of William's older brother who predeceased him. William was also stepfather to Marjorie's 13-year-old daughter Helen Joan (Joan) Moore, from a 1929 marriage to a Joseph Francis Moore in Syracuse that had ended in divorce.
When William’s body was returned from California, it lay in repose at Vanderbilt Funeral Home in Tarrytown. A requiem Mass was held in the late chief petty officer's honor at his Irvington parish, Immaculate Conception, and burial followed with full military honors by Irvington Post 2911 Veterans of Foreign Wars and its auxiliary at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery a little more than a week after his death.
Links to similar personal stories about Irvington heroes who gave their lives for their country*
◼ Pfc. Cuthbert Powell Sinkking: Class of '42 gave 3 of its own to the ages
◼ Pfc. John Joseph (Joe) Gilchrist: Died after capture of Saint-Lo
◼ Lt. (j.g.) George Eddison Haines: Lost at sea, awarded Silver Star
◼ Pfc. Joseph Thomas Costello: Teen lost life in Battle of Mindanao
◼ MSgt. James Peter Kelley: Survived WW II and Korea; died in fall
◼ S1 Archibald Ronald: Lost on next-to-last Navy ship sunk by U-boat
◼ TSgt. Raffaele R. (Ralph) Reale: A hero's life ended on East Sunnyside Lane
◼ Sgt. Robert F. Morrison: Took fight to the enemy, fell in Alsace
◼ Lt. Col. George W. Beavers Jr.: Re-upped as private; died on war's eve
◼ F2 Claude L. Bronnes: Went down with the Atlanta at Guadalcanal
◼ MMLC William James Downey: Died aboard ship off West Coast
◼ Pvt. Alick Main Ian: Died taking Aachen, first German city to fall in WWII
◼ Pfc. George Mills Hill Jr.: Survived Okinawa, only to fall in South Korea
◼ Pvt. Peter R. Robinson: Lost to shadows of time over Pacific, answers never found
WORLD WAR I
* World War II deaths include soldiers who enlisted during the World War II era and died while still in uniform, either killed in combat, or died of accidental or other causes. Two of the World War II fallen served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict and are listed under World War II. One of those died in an accidental fall after surviving both wars, the other was killed in action in Korea after surviving World War II.World War I deaths also include battlefield deaths and accidental or illness-related deaths by service members still in uniform at the time of their passing.
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