Tyler Daily Courier-Times, June 4, 1917:

It is not widely known in Tyler that a local citizen is currently serving on the USS Jupiter, which has just arrived in France with ten thousand tons of wheat. This is indeed the case.

Lee Morris Wallace, the son of Mrs. Floy Wallace, enlisted in the Navy about three years ago and has recently been assigned to the Jupiter. Before his enlistment, he worked as the night baggage agent at the Union Depot. His relatives and friends have high hopes for him, and he is proving to be a young man of fine character.

Lee Morris Wallace was born on May 31, 1894, in Texas to Williamson Albert Wallace and Florence “Floy” Jarvis Wallace. Florence Jarvis is the daughter of Thaddeus Warsaw Jarvis and Louisa T. Caylor Jarvis.

Lee Morris Wallace enlisted in the Navy at the Dallas, Texas, Recruiting Station on February 17, 1914, at the age of 19 years and 8 months. His home address at that time was 1505 North Fannie Street, Tyler, Texas. He served on the USS Jupiter from April 6, 1917, to June 27, 1917, as a Coxswain, and then again from August 11, 1917, to January 3, 1918, as a Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class. He also served on the USS Bavaria from January 4, 1918, to February 18, 1918. He was discharged on June 14, 1919, at the Dallas, Texas, Recruiting Station.

Lee Morris Wallace married Ruby Fite on December 23, 1920, as recorded in Volume 24, Page 459 of the Marriage Records of Smith County, Texas. There is no information available regarding children born to Lee and Ruby Wallace, nor do we know if they divorced or if Ruby passed away. In 1942, a marriage between Lee Morris Wallace and Mary Dell Shipley was found in the Ancestry.com Collin County, Texas, Marriage Index, 1800-2010.

Lee Morris Wallace died on February 12, 1962, in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas. He and his wife, Mary Dell Wallace (1910-1995), are buried at Mills Cemetery in Garland, Dallas County, Texas, as documented by a Find a Grave entry created by EJ Brown on March 7, 2005, Memorial #10573984.

You can find information about the U.S.S. Jupiter at http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/02/0203.html.

This project, titled “Letters Home from Soldiers During World War I,” is supported by the efforts of Andrew L. Leath, Vicki Betts, Tiffany Wright, Savannah Brantley, Randy Gilbert, Jeanne Sellers, and Scott Fitzgerald.

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