DANNEMORA — William “Arnie” Miller discovered that his maternal McCorry uncles all served in the military when he went in search of the final resting place of two of them.
This has led him on a quest to discover more about them and the events of their military tours and their lives afterward.
His maternal uncles were Harry McCorry Jr., John “Jack” McCorry, Richard “Dick” McCorry, and William “Bill” McCorry.
“Four of them served in the heat of World War II, 1942 to 1945,” Arnie said.
“This isn’t Saving Pvt. Ryan, but it’s still pretty significant I thought. I have a 1940 Census that I happened to find online, and I took a picture of who lived where in 1940. My mother is not there. She’s the sister to these folks. I realized she was married in 1938. So in 1940, she wasn’t listed in the household. So the four boys helped run the McCorry’s Hotel on Main Street in Dannemora, which stood until 1960-something. Nobody was alive or around to run it anymore. It just stopped.”
The McCorry Hotel, owned by Harry McCorry Sr., and his wife, Mary, had a bar and five to six rooms that Miller remembers from his childhood when his mother, Irene Mae McCorry Miller, bar tended there with his father, William “Bill” Miller.
“Remember those two ugly buildings that were torn down in Dannemora, those were prominent buildings back then,” Arnie said.
“My dad was remodeling one of those. He was a cabinet maker. Somehow, he managed to fall out of a window and got killed in 1949 at the age of 39. Of course, McCorry’s Hotel was right across the way from where those buildings were. The story is, my mother said, when he came to Dannemora in 1930 right after the Depression. He walked into McCorry’s Hotel, and it was booming, of course. They weren’t impacted by the Depression because incarceration must go on. They had to explain to him that there’s no Depression in that kind of world because you still have to run the prisons.”
His Uncle Harry McCorry died in 1958 of cancer.
“They had a headstone for him before 1973, which is significant because all the records in St. Louis, Missouri, where you have to get records for the military, burned,” he said.
“His was right on the top, apparently, of that year and that month of his getting out of the service. So, I had to futz around with that a little bit. Harry, John and Dick, the first three, were all in the Army and William McCorry, who in 1940 was only 13, he had to wait until he became of age so he could go in. William McCorry went into the Navy.”
Harry, a Tech 4, was assigned to the 540th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Unit. John, a Tech 5, was assigned to the Signal Service Battalion as a radar operator. He received the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal for campaigns in Naples, Rome, Arno and Tunisia.
Richard, a Tech 5, a field lineman, served in the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion. His battles and campaigns were in Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, Rhineland. Bill, a Seaman 2nd Class, remained stateside, but received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. He was stationed in Lido Beach LI, NY and Treasure Island in San Francisco, California and the war ended before he deployed overseas.
“It seemed like my Uncle Harry went in first and before he got back, the other boys joined one at a time,” Miller said.
“Harry, 24, enlisted October 1942 and was discharged November 1943. John, 22, enlisted September 1942 and returned November 1945. Dick, 19, enlisted September 1943 and discharged in February 1946. Bill, 17, enlisted in February 20, 1945 and was discharged in July 23, 1946.”
Jack married Helen C. Myers at a ceremony performed by the Rev. Earl Taylor, in St. Joseph’s church in Dannemora, at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon, Sept. 6, 1942, according to Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
Miss Shirley Ann Bourne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leon O. Bourne of West Plattsburgh, was united in marriage to Richard J. McCorry, son of Mrs. Mary McCorry and the late Harry McCorry Sr. of Dannemora, at a nuptial Mass Saturday, Aug. 26, 1950 at St. Joseph’s Church. Rev. Lawrence Brady performed the double ring ceremony, according to the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
William C. McCorry married Dorothy E. Carter on Aug. 10, 1948 in Plattsburgh. She was the daughter of Alphia Paul Carter, and his wife Sabina, according to Ancestry.com. Harry Leo McCorry married Dorothy A. Brickey on July 22, 1957 in Saranac. He had a previous marriage, according to family oral history.
When his Uncle Harry died in 1958, Miller was 9 years old.
“I remember him very, very well,” he said.
“When my dad died, I spent a lot of time at the bar because my mother was bartending. My Uncle Harry died a miserable death. He had throat cancer. My Uncle Bill lived in Dannemora. My Uncle Dick lived in West Plattsburgh. My Uncle Jack was a bird dog scout for the New York Yankees. His uncle, my great uncle, Bill McCorry, was the traveling secretary for the New York Yankees.”
Miller knew his uncles, but he didn’t know where all of them were buried.
“If I had ever gone to the Dannemora Cemetery, I would have seen my Uncle Jack,” he said.
“I didn’t know where he was. My father, my mother, and everybody were buried in St. Peter’s because my dad wasn’t Catholic. Back when he died in 1949, Catholics wouldn’t allow non-Catholics in the cemetery, but St. Peter’s did because they were in a different jurisdiction I found out later. We all ended up in St. Peter’s. Dick is in Morrisonville at St. Alexander’s Cemetery, and Jack is in the new Dannemora Cemetery, so I had to do a lot of running around.”
The three older McCorry brothers listed their civilian occupation as bartender when they enlisted. Jack listed his occupation as student.
“It was so odd, but I realized they were all working at McCorry’s Hotel because they were still living at home,” Arnie said.
“I am the only living relative of two of them that I know of. Uncle Harry has no living relatives that I am aware of. Uncle Harry worked at the bar, and Uncle Jack, Dick and Bill all went into corrections. They were all three prison guards and retired from the prison.”