The Early Years
(12 Jul 1921 -
27 Jan 1942)
Army Air Forces
(28 Jan 1942 -
1 Aug 1943)
Post Ploesti
(2 Aug 1943 -
31 Jul 2006)
Most Recently
(1 Aug 2006 -
Present)
Official MOH Citations:
Mary Margaret BAUCOM
(25 May 1922 - 3 Jul 2002)
Sources: Personal papers, Mary Margaret Baucom's family history, and The Cruiser from 1940
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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
Update:
On 21 Dec 2008, Betty contacted me again saying that she found two more items
for me. On the left is a picture of Mary Margaret and Pete with his signature below.
On the right, a note that Pete wrote to Mary Margaret, again with his signature.
These images are from the 1940 edition of The Cruiser, the school annual
of Corpus Christi Junior College. Pete's note reads, "Dear Margaret, May you always
win friend and influence people with your sweet ways. Lloyd Hughes"
Thank you Betty for sharing these with me.
First published: May 10, 2007
Last updated: January 02, 2013
