The Early Years
(12 Jul 1921 -
28 Jan 1942)
Army Air Forces
(28 Jan 1942 -
1 Aug 1943)
Post Ploesti
(2 Aug 1943 -
Present)
Official MOH Citations:
Mary Margaret Baucom
(25 May 1922 - 3 Jul 2002)
Sources: Personal papers and Mary Margaret Baucom's family history
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Mary Margaret Baucom knew Pete from when they were both going to Corpus Christi Junior College (later Del Mar Junior College) in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas, USA between 1940 and 1941. Pete gave her a copy of The Complete Works of O. Henry by O. Henry and signed the flyleaf with these words: |
After Pete's death and subsequently receiving the Medal of Honor, Mary Margaret found a newspaper article written about him and pasted it inside the O. Henry book.
Mary Margaret Baucom married in Aug 1942 and had three children. After nearly 60 years of marriage, she died on 3 Jul 2002 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, USA. In May 2007, one of her children, Betty, decided to put the copy of The Complete Works of O. Henry on sale at eBay and identified it as signed by a Medal of Honor recipient.
I emailed Betty and told her who I was, then asked her about the book. Betty explained that her mother knew Pete from back when. After several emails back and forth, we decided we do not know if they dated or were just friends or classmates, nor do we know what Pete meant by “My One Big Mistake.” What we do know is that Mary Margaret kept the book for more than 60 years. Someone from Kansas bought it off of Betty’s eBay listing, but first Betty sent me scanned images of the book’s title page, Pete’s signature, the newspaper article and these photos of Mary Margaret Baucom on this page.
© Baucom Dec 2007
Last updated: August 21, 2008
