Baptist chaplain working at Fort Knox, KY on July 18, 1942

November 9, 2014 6:46 PM

Please help me determine/verify the name of this person: we got to Willis H. K____y Jr. and are now stuck.

Here are three examples of his name written by (I think) him, plus his wife's signature (which is Mrs. WH K____y Jr.) He states clearly that he is a "Baptist minister" working for the (we think) 88th Rcn. Bn.

I am hoping that someone has or can find a list of chaplains, or a list of personnel at Fort Knox, or a list of ordained Baptist ministers alive in 1942, or something like that, because here we have officially given up hope of agreeing as to what this person's name is (every variation we thought would work has failed to produce Google results.)

Bonus clue: I've included the signature and name of the other witness on this document (Mrs. Esther Alice H. Birk__ein), on the off chance that this might help. I am 99.95% certain that the other witness is someone who Chaplain K____y knew well. I wouldn't be stunned to learn that she and Mrs. K____y were both working as secretaries for the chaplain's office, or something.

I'd also love to know what "Rcn. Bn." is, as I haven't come up with anything better than "reception" and "reconnaissance" battalion, and neither have produced helpful results.

Why it took us until like 1990 to start telling folks to "print clearly" I will never understand.

posted by SMPA to Grab Bag (13 answers total)

Looks like "Kinzey" to me.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:51 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think "Rcn. Bn." is "reconnaissance battalion". See e.g. though it's probably not the one you're interested in.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:02 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Kanizay, which is an actual surname, not just my wild guess at the letters.
posted by ellenaim at 7:08 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Wait, how about this guy ... Willis Hamilton Kimzey, Jr.
posted by ellenaim at 7:26 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yeah, I am coming up with the same guy - Willis Hamilton Kimzey (Jr), born Georgia 1916, died Tennessee 1981.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:28 PM on November 9, 2014

Best answer: There seems to be a scholarship in his name at Union University, a Baptist college in Tennessee.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:32 PM on November 9, 2014

Best answer: I registered just to answer this! I spend a lot of time reading old handwriting and am also guessing it's Willis Hamilton Kimzey Jr who at one point was on faculty at Union University.
posted by notjustthefish at 7:34 PM on November 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Willis H. Kimzey Jr of Habersham County, Georgia is listed as an Army veteran.
posted by Snerd at 7:56 PM on November 9, 2014

Best answer: Not only was there a scholarship in his name, he was a professor of religion. This is your guy.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:36 PM on November 9, 2014

Response by poster: Woo hoo! I keep telling my family you guys are the best ever and BAM there you go!

Stay tuned for trying to figure out what park I was sitting in circa May 1981. We are pretty sure it's "somewhere between New York and Pennsylvania."
posted by SMPA at 8:44 PM on November 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

By the way, it's very unlikely the wife would have been acting as the chaplain's secretary or anything else: a military chapel would only have military members staffing it. Your chaplain would have been an Army officer; his assistants would have been enlisted personnel.
posted by easily confused at 2:32 AM on November 10, 2014

Esther Alice Birkenstein, for the sake of completeness.
posted by ellenaim at 3:36 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you, ellenaim! Mrs. Birkenstein and her husband are buried in the same cemetery as the couple from this document, which is either creepy or awesome (not totally certain which.)
posted by SMPA at 3:15 PM on November 10, 2014