Page 175 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Fourteen: 1940 - 1949
The Ocean Pond Recreation Area still has the memorial plaque,
a fitting reminder how a young forester gave his life for our country
some 60 years ago and that a grateful country honored his supreme
sacrifice the best way it knew how.

The last Columbia Countian to die in World War II was Staff
Sgt. William F. (Bill) Sheely (CHS 1942), who was shot down as a
tail-gunner on a B-24 Liberator in 1944. His daughter, named Billy
Sheely after her father, was born three months later. Billy (CHS 1962)
went on to become a teacher and taught for several years at Lake
City Junior High School before moving to Virginia.
Columbia High School honored her dad by naming a Future
Farmers of America chapter the Billy Sheely Chapter (see photo be-
low).

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