Ouachita County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....MCKAY, DAN BOIES March 10, 2013 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Gina Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006026 March 12, 2013, 2:10 pm News Star World - March 12, 2013 DAN BOIES MCKAY Services will be held for retired Richland Parish Clerk of Court, D. B. McKay, at Rayville First Baptist Church, Rayville, at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, with the Rev. Rick Aultman officiating, Interment to follow at Gwin Cemetery in Mangham, LA. Visitation will be held at Mangham Baptist Church from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home-Rayville, LA. Dan Boies "D.B." McKay, 89, of Mangham, died Sunday, March 10, 2013, at his residence. He was preceded in death by his parents Daniel Baker McKay and Ethel Annette Boies McKay of Mangham, and his grandson, Thomas E. "Trey" Cooper III of Rayville. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, JoAnn McKay of Mangham, four sons, Dan B. McKay, Jr., of Bunkie, Stephen R. McKay of Lake Charles, James Reese McKay, Boulder, Colorado, and Kevin B. McKay of Mangham; and two daughters, JoAnnette Mattison of Dallas, and Dedee Mangold of Erie, Colorado. He is also survived by four granddaughters, five grandsons, and seven great-grandchildren. He was born in Mangham, June 8, 1923. He graduated from Mangham High School in 1940 and attended college at Northeast in Monroe for about 3 semesters until the outbreak of World War II, at which time he volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. After his tenure as Richland Parish Clerk of Court from 1957- 80, he operated Richland Abstract Company until shortly before his death. He was a lifelong member of the Mangham Baptist Church where he served as a deacon for many years. He volunteered as a coach for Mangham Little League Baseball, where he taught many young boys how to play the game and work together. Another activity he loved was taking care of his herd of beef cattle on the family farm near Mangham. In the Second World War, he served on a B-17 Flying Fortress in the 100th Bomb Group, 418th Squadron, of the U.S. Army Air Corps., Eighth Air Force. After training as a bombardier at several air bases in the U.S., he flew high- altitude daylight combat missions into the heart of Nazi Germany during the especially perilous year of 1943, when the Air Force had no fighters that could escort them all the way to their targets. He flew with his pilot and two different crews on several missions, including two missions that suffered very heavy losses. On the mission to Regensburg, his B-17 was set ablaze when heavy machine gun fire from German fighters hit the oxygen system. His pilot was killed along with half the crew. Lt. McKay and the navigator both suffered burns but managed to bail out before the aircraft exploded in midair. He and the other surviving crew members were captured by the German Luftwaffe. He was taken first to a hospital, where he was treated for burns, and then sent to join other captured American and British airmen in Stalag Luft 3 at Sagen near the current German- Polish border. He spent next 20 months as a POW. Near the end of the war both the prisoners and the prison guards were on starvation rations of bread and water, with potatoes when they were lucky. In the dead of winter, in early 1945, as the Russian army approached from the east, he and his fellow POWs were sent on a forced march through the snow for about 100 miles to the west. From there, they were taken by train to the much larger Stalag 7A. In April 1945, elements of the 14th Armored Division of General Patton's 3rd Army managed to fight their way to Stalag 7A at Moosburg where they liberated over 110,000 Allied prisoners. One of Lt. McKay's high school classmates, Bennie M. Hixon, was serving in the Division at the time and the two of them managed to meet up in the chaos of the newly liberated prison camp. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and awarded the Purple Heart, Air Medal, American Campaign Medal, and the Europe, Africa, Middle East Ribbon with battle star. Pallbearers will be Dan B. McKay III, John McKay, Nathan McKay, Hunter McKay, Jared McKay, Joel McKay, Donald Womack, and Paul Descant. Honorary pallbearers will be the members of Mr. McKay's Sunday School class and the deacons of Mangham Baptist Church. The family requests memorials made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, or to the building fund of Mangham Baptist Church. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/obits/m/mckay1941nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/lafiles/ File size: 4.9 Kb