Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthApril 30, 1891
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinAda B Soucy, wife, 1215 Hawthorne Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Trade / CallingBookkeeper
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number2311328
BattalionHeadquarters Detachment
ForceAmerican Expeditionary Forces
BranchArmy Artillery, First Army
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 8, 1963
Age at Death72
Buried AtFort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
PlotJ 0 789

Soucy, Joseph Wallace

Joseph Wallace Soucy was born on 30 April 1891 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small town near present day Kenora. His parents Phillipe Soucy and Angeline Guerette were both from Quebec, living in Hull at the time of the 1881 census. Children born to the couple in Quebec were George (1876), Edward (1878), Marie Louise (1881), and William (abt 1883). While living in Hull Phillipe worked at a sawmill. By 1885 and the birth of son Elzear, the family was living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Daughter Rose was born the next year. The 1891 census found the family living in Keewatin, with Phillipe working as an edger at a local sawmill. By the time of the 1905 Minnesota census, the family had moved to Minneapolis.

Single and working as a bookkeeper at a factory, Joseph signed his WW1 Draft registration card in Minneapolis. As a Private with the Camp Dodge March Replacement Draft he embarked for overseas from Hoboken, New Jersey on 6 March 1918 aboard the Tenadores. The Transport passenger list gave his wife Ada in Minneapolis as next of kin. As a Sergeant with the Headquarters Army Artillery, First Army, Joseph arrived in Brooklyn, New York aboard the Santa Ana on 5 May 1919. The First Army was established on 10 August 1918 as a field army when sufficient American military manpower had arrived in France. As an element of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the latter stages of World War I it was the first of three field armies established under the AEF.

The 1920 census found Joseph and Ada living on Hawthorne Avenue in Minneapolis, with Joseph working as an assistant buyer in the wholesale dry goods industry. By the time of the 1930 census the couple had moved to 8th Street South and Joseph was working as a salesman in a radio shop. By the next year Joseph and Ada had divorced, with Joseph marrying Marie Frances Brodkast on 4 February 1939. Born on 3 May 1906 in Red Lake, Minnesota, Marie was the daughter of Edward and Lucy (Hoolihan) Brodkast. It appears that this marriage also ended in divorce.

Joseph died on 8 February 1963. At the time of his death he was survived by his brothers George of Minneapolis, Elzear of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Edward and William in Canada. He was predeceased by his mother Angeline in 1930, father Phillipe in 1935, and sisters Marie Louise (George) Duquette in 1948 and Rose (Charles) Dupont in 1949, all in Minneapolis. Joseph’s wife Ada had married Charles Jennings in 1945 and died on 12 May1962 in Minneapolis. His second wife Marie had moved to Chicago, Illinois by the time of her mother’s death in 1950 and died on 10 September 1962. Joseph is interred in the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.

By Judy Stockham

Grave marker photo courtesy of JimR, findagrave.com
Obituaries provided by Tricia Lemon Putman, RAOGK

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