Individual 35: David Theodore Williams

Individual Record 35

Name} Williams, David Theodore (Dave)

Family History} Hancock

Title}

Race} White

Sex} Male

Birth: Date} Fam 16 Jan 1907

Place} , Napa, California

Marr.: Date} Exa 22 May 1929

Place} Portland, Multnomah, Oregon (Link)

Marr.: Date} Cir June 1940

Place} Miami, Dade, Florida (Link)

Marr.: Date} Exa 3 Oct 1979

Place} Mendocino, Mendocino, California (Link)

Death: Date} Exa 18 Apr 1984

Place} Mendocino Coast Hospital, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Calif.

Burial: Date} Exa 25 Apr 1984

Place} Ashes at sea, California

Grave Marker} No

Source 1}	9 = Biography
Source 2}	164 = Geog histry
Source 3}	26 = 1910 US cen
Source 4}	304 = 1920 US cen
Source 5}	1662 = Marriage rec
Source 6}	1663 = Newspaper
Source 7}	705 = 1930 US cen
Source 8}	696 = Photograph
Source 9}	73 = Birth certif
Source 10}	1665 = 1940 US cen
Source 11}	1673 = Marriage rec
Source 12}	1679 = Newspaper
Source 13}	1187 = Military rec
Source 14}	724 = Land deed

Parents: } Theodore John Williams & Myrtle A. Bird
Relationship No.} 8

1st Household No.} 141 = Sonoma Road, Napa, California

Occupation 1} Radio operator
Occupation 2} Air traffic controller

Religion/Church}

Spouses: First} Vose, Jacqueline Sidney (Jackie)
Second} Bacon, Ida Roberta
Third} Howard, Esther Rose
Total Number of} 3

Source 15} 1609 = 1950 US cen
Source 16} 718 = Marriage cert
Source 17} 1595 = Marriage rec

Source 18}   415 = Address list
Source 19}   675 = Photographs
Source 20}   861 = Death record

Source 21} 1599 = S.S. record
Source 22} 14 = Obituary
Source 23} 721 = Death certif

Notes: David Theodore Williams was born in Napa, California on 16 Jan 1907. His parents were Theodore John Williams and Myrtle A. Bird. He had an older brother Simeon. The photograph shows him in 1908. In the 1910 USA census, David was living with his family on Sonoma Road, Napa Twp., Napa, California. His father was a farm laborer, and his mother was a notions merchant. His brother Simeon J., 12, attended school.

In the 1920 USA census, David F., 12, was living with his family on Sonoma Hill Road, Carneros, Napa County. His father was a well borer of water wells, and his brother Simeon J., 22, a farm laborer.

Dave usually rode to high school with Duke Duhig in Duke's 1914 Studebaker four-door touring car with side curtains — beginning in the fall of 1919. Dave and Joe Drapinski were the same age, great friends, and both were completely hooked on ham radio which was then in its infancy. They made receivers from cat's whiskers, pieces of Galena ore, wire, and earphones. At that time there was no voice or music to be received, but they could hear Morse code transmissions. Dave, Joe, and a friend later got some Model T Ford coils and dry cell batteries, and with these built radio transmitters. They all knew Morse Code and soon were talking back and forth to each other in code. Suddenly they heard an extremely strong code transmission; it was from the Navy at Mare Island. "Who in the blankety-blank is cutting in on us and interfering with out signals?" Dave and his friends quickly got off the air and laid low for a while. (Source 164, page 49)

David T. Williams, 22, married Jacqueline Vose, 18, on 22 May 1929 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. His address was given as the S.S. California, occupation radio operator, and hers as 683 E. 60th N. In July of that year, David was aboard the S.S. California off the coast of China and Manchuria.

In the 1930 USA census, David, 23, and Jacqueline, 19, were living in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. David was a radio operator for a steamship company. Their rent was $35.00. They had one daughter. David and Jacqueline divorced about 1937.

In the 1940 USA census, David T. Williams, 32, was divorced and living in a boarding house in Fairbanks, Alaska. He had completed four years of high school, and was a radio operator earning $2,750. a year.

David married Ida Roberta Muessel (maiden name Bacon) in early June 1940, in the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Miami, Dade, Florida. He left immediately by plane for Seattle, and she followed by motor. On 16 Oct 1940 when David Theodore Williams, 33, registered for the WW II draft, he was living at 7615 Sand Point Way, Seattle, King, Washington. He was employed by Pan American Airways, and was described as having hazel eyes, Black hair, and of dark complexion. He listed his father as person who would always know his address.

On 18 Jun 1947, a Joint Tenancy Deed for 0.15 acres of land was recorded in the Fort Bragg Race Course Subdivision, Mendocino, California. The address was probably 32584 Casa Del Noyo Drive. In the 1950 USA census, David T. Williams, 45, and Roberta Williams, 60, were living in Ten Mile River, Mendocino, California. He was the manager of a stationary airport, for S.W. Air Ways.

Roberta died in 1978, and David Theodore Williams, 72, married Esther McNeilly, 77, on 3 Oct 1979 in Mendocino, Mendocino, California. David was a radio officer in merchant shipping, and Esther was a secretary for a Sr. Citizens Center. They were next door neighbors. In later years their address was 540 Myrtle, Fort Bragg.

David Theodore Williams, 77, retired radio operator from the Merchant Marine and pioneer airline companies, died 18 Apr 1984 in the Mendocino Coast Hospital, Fort Bragg, California. He had been a resident of the Mendocino coast since 1946. His ashes were buried at sea.
[The following text is taken from his newspaper obituary]
The photo of Dave at the right was taken when he began his professional communication career as a radio operator in 1924 aboard the Alaska-Packers sailing ships — including the Star of Faulkland and the Star of India. He later transferred to a steam schooner shortly before the Star of Faulkland was wrecked while traveling through Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Island chain. Ships of this size were used to transport supplies from San Francisco to the Alaska canneries and then return with canned salmon.

Dave's duties included unpacking and setting up the radio transmitter at the cannery after the equipment had been sitting idle through the winter. During the summer canning season, he transmitted cannery reports to San Francisco.

Dave's next job was as a radio operator on Great Lakes' ore and grain freighters which made excursions from Duluth to Detroit and Buffalo. He then served as a combination purser and radio operator aboard ships of the old Admiral Line, cruising the West Coast from San Diego to San Francisco to Portland to Seattle. Dave also worked with the Light House Service out of San Francisco and the States S.S. out of Portland to the Orient and other ports.

Dave's airline service was as diverse as his involvement as a radio operator. He worked first for Pacific Alaska Airways, a subsidiary of Pan Am. He was a member of the crew and First Radio Officer of Pan Am's first flight from Seattle's Lake Washington to Juneau, Alaska, (see the photo at the left) in the 1930s — using four-engine Sikorsky S-42B flying boats (see the photo at the right) to traverse that new route.

Thick fog allowed only a few flights to land on the Northwest waterways, so in 1940 Pan Am bought Lockheed land planes and began to fly inland "over the hump" into Whitehorse and on to Fairbanks. Dave later flew from Miami to Havana, Cuba, and Rio de Janeiro for Pan Am, and also from San Francisco to Hawaii and back. During World War II, he made several trips from San Francisco to Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, and Australia.

Following this worldwide stint, Dave applied for a flight controller position and worked at Long Island and San Francisco's airports.