EM1c William Clayborn Allen

On the day after learning that her son, William Clayborn Allen, was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mallie McCarty and her husband, Sam, withdrew all of their savings to invest in war bonds. They did the same with the proceeds of a life insurance policy.

“If it will help shorten the war so other mothers wouldn’t have to go through what I’ve been through, that’s all I want,” Mrs. McCarty told a reporter for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette.

Her son, William Clayborn Allen, was an electrician’s mate and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he died on Dec. 7, 1941. A few weeks earlier he had taken exams to qualify as a chief electrician – an electrician’s mate and chief petty officer.

The investment in war bonds, which paid below market returns, was no small sacrifice for the hard-working family. Mrs. McCarty helped another son deliver newspapers every night in Onslow, Iowa, population 230 about 40 miles southwest of Dubuque. When that was done the two of them pulled a wagon to deliver milk around town. She also served as janitor at Onslow Presbyterian Church. Her husband worked at a lumber company, served as village marshal, and maintained the town water supply and electrical box, the Gazette reported. In her spare time, Mrs. McCarty crocheted baskets to sell.

William was her oldest son. He was born Oct. 30, 1910, in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was William C. Allen and his mother was Mallie Coffman Allen, later McCarty. The son spent his boyhood in Onslow before moving to Kansas City to live with a sister. He graduated from Westport High in 1930, where he was a member of the ROTC and orchestra.  Though he graduated 300th in a class of 425, the principal said his IQ was superior.

Mr. Allen worked at a hardware business in Kansas City and at Montrose Hotel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

He had first studied electrical work when he was 10 and signed up for a correspondence course from Chicago. In 1934 he was rejected by Navy recruiters in Kansas City, but after hitchhiking to San Diego was accepted in 1935.

A Navy recruiter wrote that “the applicant’s uncle, commandeer Jerome L. Allen, commanding officer of the USS McFarland, has shown him the advantages the Navy has to offer a young man.”

Mr. Allen married Margaret Frances McCandless at St. Anthony’s Church Rectory in Long Beach, California in December 1938. He re-enlisted in 1939, and by April 1940 was posted to the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. In the Census the same month he reported working 50 weeks in 1939 and earning $1076 – the equivalent of almost $23,500 in 2023 dollars.

His uncle served throughout the war, retiring from the Navy in 1947.

Sources: The Cedar Rapids Gazette;  the Oxford Mirror of Oxford Junction, Iowa; the Arizona State Archives; California marriage license; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; U.S. Department of Defense. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona and Operation 85.