Harry and Katherine Cathey Papers, WWII 269

[Item name or title], [Folder Numbers], Harry and Katherine Cathey Papers, WWII 269, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of correspondence, photographs, military unit histories, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the lives and service of Harry S. Cathey and Katherine P. Cathey of Raleigh, NC, during World War II. Harry and Katherine Cathey were married in 1937, and lived in Raleigh at the start of the war. Harry would serve in the European Theater in Company F, 101st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), U.S. Army. Katherine Cathey worked as a secretary and clerk-stenographer for the North Carolina Office of the Selective Service System from 1942 to 1947.

The collection contains the surviving correspondence that the couple sent to each other in WWII. Katherine would write or type mass mailer letters for the Cathey family's group of friends and family, providing home front news updates and service information updates given to her by various people to keep everyone informed in their group. Some of these letters are included here. Very little of Harry Cathey's overseas correspondence survives in the collection. There are a set of personal family photographs taken during the 1940s of Harry Cathey, Katherine Cathey, and Katherine's Perry family relatives during the war. There are also photographs from Katherine's work at the state Selective Service office in Raleigh.

Some of the more unique items in the collection include an original unit history book for Harry Cathey's Army unit, entitled the Wingfoot: Official History of the 101th Cavalry Group (Mechanized), and a history of the unit when it was part of the New York National Guard. There is a typed list with handwritten messages on it, believed created by Harry Cathey, of fellow North Carolina servicemen with whom he served or encountered during his time in the U.S. Army in WWII. The list includes the men's names and home towns in North Carolina. Such lists were commonly kept by North Carolinians in WWII service in diaries, journals, pockets bibles, or other means of recording personal information in service. There is a single issue of the troop transport ship newsletter for the ship in which Harry Cathey sailed back to the U.S. from the European Theater.

The collection is arranged based on creator and format of materials in folders.

Harry Sloan Cathey was born on June 18, 1908, in Charlotte, NC, to Charlton Graham and Martha Theocia Mitchell Cathey. By 1910, the Cathey family was living in the Berryhill suburb of Charlotte, with Charlton Cathey working as a farmer. By 1930, Harry Cathey was working as a shipping clerk for a tire company in the Charlotte area. He attended college for a year, but never finished a degree program. Harry Cathey would marry Emily Katherine Perry on June 20, 1937, in Wake County, NC. Perry had attended college at North Carolina State College in Raleigh, NC, in the early 1930s. The couple settled in Raleigh, where Harry continued working as a shipping clerk for a wholesale tie company and Katherine (as she went by her middle name) worked as a stenographer for the North Carolina State Board of Education. Apparently prior to WWII, Harry Cathey served in the North Carolina National Guard, but his service dates and unit are unknown.

With the United States' entrance into World War II, Harry S. Cathey enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was inducted at Fort Bragg, NC, on December 5, 1942. Katherine saw her husband off at the Union Square bus station in Raleigh onto the bus taking him to Fort Bragg. At the time, Katherine Cathey was working as a secretary at the North Carolina Office of the Selective Service System in Raleigh. Just a few days after Christmas in 1942, Harry Cathey was assigned to serve as a Private in Company F, 101st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), U.S. Army, and was sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, for training and preparation to be sent to the European Theater. He would not arrive in Europe until November 1944, when he arrived by troop transport ship in Liverpool, England. Cathey arrived in Le Havre, France, in February 1945, and moved through Europe with the 101st Cavalry. Cathey was returned to the United States after V-E Day, arriving in New York City on May 20, 1945.

During WWII, Katherine Cathey worked as a secretary, and later clerk-stenographer, at the North Carolina Office of the Selective Service. She was able to keep up on military service news as a result. Katherine would write or type mass mailer letters for the Cathey family's group of friends and family, providing home front news updates and service information updates given to her by various people to keep everyone informed in their group. Katherine Cathey remained working with the Selective Service through June 1947, until she was notified that her job would be eliminated under the federal government's liquidation of the Selective Service System after WWII.

After WWII, the Catheys moved to Garner, NC, where Harry worked as a clerk for McCracken Supply by 1952. Harry Cathey would not be fully discharged from active and reserve Army duty until March 8, 1946, with the rank of Private First Class. Little is known about the Catheys' life after the 1950s. Harry S. Cathey died on May 24, 1999, and was buried in Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh, NC. Emily Katherine Cathey died on November 10, 1999, and was buried in Montlawn Memorial Park.

The collection was donated to the Military Collection of the State Archives of North Carolina by Boyd D. Cathey of Wendell, NC, in February 2011.