The story of Alfred Ellis is the story of determination. An immigrant’s child, he was raised by a struggling single mother, yet he thrived. Alfred makes something of himself – going to college, starting and running his own company, then answering his nation’s call and becoming a pilot in the Air Force. His story ended when he went missing in action.

Alfred Reece Ellis must have been a symbol of their new life for his parents, George Ellis and Kate Orum Ellis. He was born the same year as his family immigrated to America. He was the first child in his family born on U.S. soil.[i]

Like so many others, they boarded a ship and set sail for a new life. In 1907, George and Kate, along with three little ones, struck out for America and left their native Wales behind. The children were Arthur, 3, Margaretta “Gretta” R. Ellis, 3 and Sylvia Ellis, 2.[ii] Records show Kate had completed the 4th grade.[iii]

It must have been a worrisome voyage for the couple for many reasons and one of those was they were expecting another baby. When Alfred, the first child to be born in the United States, arrived on May 21, 1907 in Iowa City, Iowa, he already had a house full of playmates. [iv] Another sister is born in 1909 and they name her Katie May “Kitty” Ellis.

By 1910, the family is settled in Des Moines, Iowa. They are renting a house on Second Street. George is working as a carpenter. Arthur, Gretta and Sylvia are now old enough to be in school. Only Alfred and Kitty stay home with their mother.[v]

Tragedy struck the young family in September of 1911. Alfred’s father, George, is working on the structural iron viaduct over the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway tracks below.[vi] He’s forty-four feet up, balanced on an iron beam, when he slips and falls. Death is nearly instantaneous as he hits his head on a rail. Coworkers summoned the police surgeon but George dies before help arrives.[vii]

George Ellis dies on September 20, 1911 leaving behind children ages 7, 7, 6, 4, and 2. The funeral was held at God’s Mission Church. He was buried in the Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.[viii]

Alfred’s mother, Kate, is now the head of the household. By 1915[ix], she’s moved to a rental house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 128 miles east of Des Moines. The family is getting by with help from the city of Cedar Rapids. According to The Gazette, a newspaper, in 1920 Kate Ellis was granted $2 per week for each child and listed Gretta, Arthur, Sylvia, Alfred and Kitty.[x] Another legal notice read that Widow’s Pensions were given Kate Ellis by the Order of Superior Court of Cedar Rapids. The $520 annual pension she received, adjusted for inflation, would be about $8,209 in 2021 dollars or about $684 a month, a small sum to feed, clothe and house five children.

In 1920, the oldest boy, Arthur, who is 15, is going to school and helping support the family by painting signs. Kate does not list any employment on the 1930 census, but she has taken in a female boarder, Genevieve Cook, who is working as a dishwasher in a lunchroom. Also at home are Gretta, 15, Sylvia, 13, Alfred, 10 and Kitty. 9. Kate, Gretta, Arthur and Sylvia have not become citizens so they are marked as resident aliens.[xi]

Just a few years brings a big difference. The family is still in the same house in 1925 but they are all now citizens of the United States. Gretta and Arthur have finished high school. Sylvia is in 11th grade, Alfred in 10th and Kitty May in 7th grade.[xii]

Alfred finished high school around 1927.

HIS LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

A big change is coming for Alfred in 1930. He falls for a girl named Natalie.

When the 1930 census is taken, Alfred, 22, is at a sign company like his big brother, Arthur. Alfred is working on show cards, usually a type of display advertising for a product found in a store. Arthur is a sign painter and Kitty has found work as a telephone operator.

Natalie Louisa Lupton was 15 when she applied for a marriage license with Alfred. (In 1930, the age of consent in Iowa was 14. The age was not increased until 1961.) [xiii])Alfred listed his occupation as student. Natalie was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The young couple were married by Minister James Gable in Mechanicsville, Iowa on September 27, 1930. Family members from the bride’s side, D.S. and Lucille Lupton, were witnesses.

The young couple celebrated the birth of a baby on December 4, 1930.[xiv] They named her Dorritt Sue Ellis and called her Sue.[xv] Despite marrying young and working, the young couple are devoted to getting an education. Eventually, Alfred completes three years of college at the University of Iowa,[xvi] where he is on the tumbling team.[xvii] Natalie goes on to complete four years.[xviii] The following year, they have moved and made their home thirty miles south in Iowa City.

Around 1934, Alfred strikes out on his own, opening Ellis Advertising Company. He’s been working in the field for at least a dozen years. He has an office on South Clinton Street. The family is living on Center Avenue.

As the war years loom, 1940 sees Alfred, 32, and Natalie, 24 living in a rental house on 7th Avenue in Iowa City.[xix] As is common at the time, they’ve taken in a lodger, Ben Randolph, 27, a geologic engineer. Natalie is keeping house and caring for nine-year-old Sue, but Natalie is also attending school and is a girl scout leader.[xx]

Alfred and Natalie have a common interest in airplanes. It was reported prior to the war, she learned to fly in Iowa City.[xxi] Alfred made the news once in a lawsuit for plane damages. According to the plane’s owner, Alfred used the plane without permission and damaged it when he failed to clear a fence on take-off.[xxii] Ultimately, Alfred had his pilot certificate revoked by the civil aeronautics authority siting poor judgement in making a down-wind take off in 34 mile-per-hour winds.[xxiii]

Alfred’s not the only one with plane troubles. Natalie too makes the news but as more of a heroine in June of 1940. She landed a plane with a sputtering engine in a field with newspaper accounts calling her an “attractive aviatrix.” The article goes on to say that as far as anyone knows, Natalie is the first female to affect a forced landing in the area.[xxiv]

Meanwhile, Alfred’s extended family are still back in Cedar Rapids. His mother and unmarried siblings are living in a rental home on First Avenue West. Mother Kate is keeping house. His sister Gretta, 35, is writing advertising copy at an ad agency. His brother, Arthur, 35, has taken his advertising work to a new level and is a sign designer in a neon laboratory[xxv] and is often on the road selling neon signs.[xxvi] Kitty, 27, is selling real estate.[xxvii]

Besides the airplanes, not everything goes smoothly at home for the young family. In June of 1941, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, a newspaper, reported on the family’s troubles on page two under the headline “Files Petition in Court for Divorce, Custody of Child.” The article stated Natalie had filed for divorce and asked for custody of Sue, age 10.[xxviii] The couple does appear to go their separate ways after this.

Natalie, a pilot and member of the Ninety-Nines, a group for women holding pilot licenses[xxix], heads to Buffalo, New York in March of 1942 to study parachute packing at a factory. She passed the government tests “with flying colors.” Natalie was one of the first women to take the test in Buffalo.[xxx]

Sometime in that same year, Alfred also enlists, but he joined the Army Air Corp.[xxxi] He ends up flying army bombers out of Long Beach, California.[xxxii] On January 9, 1942, Arthur, his brother, enlists, joining the war effort.[xxxiii] He served overseas in the US Navy from March of 1942 until August of 1944.[xxxiv]

Natalie Ellis joins by enlisting in the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. (WASP) In November of 1942, she’s teaching a parachute riggers course at Lou Foote airport in Dallas, Texas.[xxxv] She was in the WASP class 43-W-4. She enlisted on February 21, 1943. Sue, their daughter, is in school in Palo Alto, California.[xxxvi]

Lots of big things happened in the summer of 1943 for the Ellis family. Alfred, serving in the air transport command at Fairfax Field, Kansas,[xxxvii] was promoted from Second to First Lieutenant in June of 1944.[xxxviii] Perhaps he and Natalie had worked out a few of their earlier problems for a time because in August, Alfred and his daughter, Sue, travel to Sweetwater, Texas for the graduation of Natalie from the only military flying school for women in the country.[xxxix]

However, Alfred and Natalie did not stay together permanently. Apparently, their divorce did come through because on March 17, 1945 she remarries to Lt. Col. Albert F. Fahy Jr.[xl]

In 1945, as Alfred serves in Africa, his mom and siblings have made a home in an apartment on 1st Avenue in Cedar Rapids. His mother Kate is keeping house while his sister, Gretta, works in the advertising department at Armstrong’s and his sister, Kitty, is a telephone operator.[xli]

HIS MILITARY STORY

First Lieutenant Alfred Reece Ellis, service number 0-499564, served in the Army Air Corp. He was with the 1202nd Air, Air Force Base Unit with the U.S. Army Air Force.

Alfred spent three years in the service, one of those in Africa. He was scheduled to go home on June 1st. He was about to make his last flight of his service overseas, but it turned into his last flight of his life.[xlii]

It’s likely Alfred was looking forward to seeing his brother, Arthur, who was wounded at Guadalcanal and was in a recuperation center in Camp Parks, California as well as his daughter, Sue, at school in California.

HIS LAST DAY

On May 30th, 1945, the day before he was to go home, Alfred was the pilot on C-47B #44-76406. His co-pilot was Flight Officer Robert "Bob" E. Mulhern from Massachusetts. Corporal George A. Shiffman, from Ohio, was along as the radio officer.[xliii] Alfred was the “old man” of the crew at age 38. Bob was 23 and George was 22.

The three were about to embark on a normally routine 776- mile[xliv] flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xlv], Liberia. On board were 18 women of the Women’s Army Corp who were being transferred to a new assignment. According to HonorStates.org, the women who were in the 1202nd were older, with an average age of 28, than the usual recruit and were chosen for their “maturity and work experience.”

There were scattered showers that morning but no other weather of note.[xlvi] The plane took off without incident and was last reported over Takoradi, British West Africa, about 150 miles west of Accra, shortly after departure.[xlvii]

Little is known about what transpired aboard the plane that day but several calls of “Mayday,” an emergency procedure used as a voice distress signal, were heard. The distress signal was loud and clear, lasting five minutes.[xlviii] A search was conducted by aircraft and surface craft over a wide area of the French Ivory Coast.[xlix] The search consisted of seven PET’s and British, French, and Native forces, who were informed to search waters and coastline. No sign of the plane was found.

The plane is believed to have crashed into the sea near Takoradi, Ghana.[l] The Chicago Tribune reported the “[li]18 WACs were the first ever reported lost overseas.”

Alfred went missing on May 30, 1945 and was declared dead while missing in action off the coast of Ghana, Africa.[lii] News of the missing plane made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. The Ames Daily Tribune, an Iowa paper, ran the front-page story under the headline “Army Plane is Missing in Africa.”[liii]

His mother was notified via telegram. No details were given at that time but a press release from Washington followed with news of the missing plane. His daughter, Sue was 14 when he was lost.

Alfred was 38.

**READ THE STORIES OF ALL 21 ON THIS FLIGHT **

Click here- https://www.fold3.com/page/653613892/flight-c-47b-44-76406-stories-of-21-missing-in-action/stories

COMMENDATIONS

Purple Heart

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign[liv]

MEMORIALS

On June 16, 1945, a memorial service for the missing was held by the WACs’ leadership in Portman Square in London and over 660 WACs attended.[lv]

First Lieutenant Alfred Reece Ellis is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing, an American Battle Monument, North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage Tunisia.

On Tuesday, June 26, 1945, a requiem mass was said by Reverend Paul L. Clark of the Grace Episcopal Church for the repose of the soul of First Lt. Alfred R. Ellis.[lvi]

AFTER THE WAR

Alfred’s ex-wife, Natalie, lived to be 85 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[lvii] She served her country from 1943 until 1962. Her second husband, Colonel Fahy, was co-pilot of the lead plane for the WWII Invasion of Italy.[lviii]

Alfred’s only brother, Arthur, married after the war. Two of his sisters, Gretta and Kitty, remained single all their lives and living with their mother or each other until their passing. (In some records, his sisters name is spelled Katie Mae.)

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

[i] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/31111_4328314-00853?pId=182093405

[ii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/31111_4328314-00853?pId=182093405

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1084/images/IA1925_1808-0148?pId=2030691

[iv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/31111_4328314-00853?pId=182093405

[v] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/31111_4328314-00853?pId=182093405

[vi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/128408985/?terms=%22george%2Bellis%22

[vii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/323399417/?terms=%22george%2Bellis%22

[viii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=4711&h=360744&tid=153005300&pid=402028630089&queryId=ae684155eb6361af19268ad10920aa51&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj753&_phstart=successSource

[ix] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1084/images/IA1915_296-0621?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630102&hintid=&queryId=8b38557cc15c4f0cfdfbe160831ff930&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD6&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=1868531

[x] The Gazette, March 2, 1920

[xi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4300702_00522?pId=43944901

[xii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1084/images/IA1925_1808-0148?pId=2030691

[xiii] https://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/services/collections/law-library/HistoricalFAQ/Q4#:~:text=A%201961%20amendment%20increased%20the,girls%20was%20raised%20to%2018.

[xiv] https://www.newspapers.com/image/549314798/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xv] https://www.newspapers.com/image/361976728/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xvi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/550824963/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xvii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/549340706/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xviii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01171-00589?pId=124509028

[xix] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01171-00589?pId=124509028

[xx] https://www.newspapers.com/image/363724725/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/551137588/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/363698769/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxiii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/359183262/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxiv] https://www.newspapers.com/image/364099739/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xxv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01177-00282?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630125&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD11&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=125770638

[xxvi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44010_03_00013-02131?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630125&hintid=&queryId=798e662896276d6cf59981cc0140a980&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD10&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=38020630

[xxvii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01177-00282?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630125&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD11&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=125770643

[xxviii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/364279588/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxix] https://www.newspapers.com/image/127624245/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xxx] https://www.newspapers.com/image/551139525/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xxxi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/550824963/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxxii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/548303953/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xxxiii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/8825/images/41912_329331-00379?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630125&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD13&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=58773

[xxxiv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/11241060:2441?tid=153005300&pid=402028630125&queryId=95a64c2ba80f6d6a7a0cc58909699ebc&_phsrc=xxD19&_phstart=successSource

[xxxv] https://www.newspapers.com/image/361976728/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxxvi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/550824963/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxxvii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/363308514/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xxxviii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/301166562/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xxxix] https://www.newspapers.com/image/361976728/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xl] https://www.newspapers.com/image/548687944/?terms=%22natalie%2Bellis%22

[xli]https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/12943755?treeid=153005300&personid=402028630102&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xxD8&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=764654433

[xlii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/550824963/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[xliii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56246797/alfred-reece-ellis

[xliv]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[xlv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[xlvi] https://www.abmceducation.org/understandingsacrifice/soldier/rose-puchalla

[xlvii]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[xlviii] https://www.abmceducation.org/understandingsacrifice/soldier/rose-puchalla

[xlix] New York Times, June 7, 1945 “18 WACS Missing on African Flight”

[l] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[li]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[lii] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

[liii] https://www.newspapers.com/image/54287898/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[liv] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=31656

[lv] https://www.facebook.com/notes/mia-recoveries-locating-lost-wwii-servicemen/the-tragic-loss-of-c-47-44-76406-the-wacs-worst-disaster/10150778536912463/

[lvi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/550826023/?terms=%22alfred%2Bellis%22

[lvii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/83577423:60525?tid=153005300&pid=402028630285

[lviii] https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2019/245/8771214_7e2adc00-11fc-4c4f-b437-41db9e11052a.png

Alfred Ellis- The_Gazette_Sat__Dec_6__1930_.jpg

Alfred Ellis' wife- Natalie Ellis Fahy- WASP Pilot.jpeg

Alfred Ellis' wife- Natalie L Lupton Ellis from ancestrycom.jpg

1st Lt. Alfred Ellis-The_Gazette_Fri__Jun_22__1945_.jpg

Alfred R Ellis