William Seymore Wakeman

Notes:

USMC veteran, enlisted Sept 1941, discharged Mar 1945 from the Second Marine Division. Wounded on Guadalcanal and Saipan. Also fought on Tarawa.

Bill worked as a tanker truck driver for Standard oil during the years he was married to my mother. He married three times but only had children from his first marriage.

Back in those days they had not identified post traumatic stress disorder as a condition, and my father returned from the war having watched close friends die and being shot twice. Whenever he drank beer he would become easily angered, occasionally throwing things and yelling (but he never touched or harmed anyone when he was angry). My mother divorced my father on the grounds of mental cruelty. My father never touched an alcoholic drink from that time on. After the divorce he moved to the country in the Sierra Nevada mountains and worked as a heavy equipment operator for the State of California.

In the early 1960's he learned to fly on the G.I. bill. He flew a crop duster in the years before they knew how dangerous the chemicals were. This was in the days when pilots filled their own hoppers without protective equipment. He developed chronic health problems, stopped flying and went back to work driving heavy equipment until he died.

Died of heart attack. Buried in Chrokee Memorial Park, Lodi, CA.

Family/Spouse: Donna Mae Ivers. Donna (daughter of Donald Jay Sease and Esther Arleta Bonfoey) was born on 29 Jan 1928; died on 22 Apr 2006. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. TerriAnn J. Wakeman