William Parker was born in 1925 in Philadelphia.  He had several brothers and sisters who remained in Philadelphia, but William and his brother Charles became foster children of Mrs. Eleanor Lyons of Grove.

Mrs. Lyons, wife of the Reverend Cheeseman Lyons, became the Foster Mother for a number of black children from Philadelphia. Eleanor was born in Exton, and moved to West Chester, renting a house at 228 N. Franklin St. in the 1930’s.   In 1940 she moved to a house in Grove. Her house was located behind the Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, at the Southeast corner of Grove and Boot Roads.  The Church and Cemetery are still there today, but the house is long gone. Grove is a small community, 2 miles north of West Chester, between that town and Exton. 

William attended the West Whiteland Consolidated School, today the Exton Elementary School located on Hendricks and Bartlett Aves. (the small development across from the new Main Street Shopping center).   He attended the United Holiness Church with his foster mother, located at 409 W. Market Street in West Chester.

William enlisted in the Army Air Forces, and after basic training and advance training, was assigned to the 855^th Engineer Battalion, Aviation. He the was sent to San Francisco to embark on the troopship the SS Cape San Juan.  The ship was a new ship, (C1-B type cargo ship, a pre Liberty Ship design,) built at Long Beach, California, for the U.S. Maritime Commission.  The San Juan was completed in June 1943 and converted to a troopship and assigned to the American Hawaiian Steamship Company.

William embarked for the ships second voyage – from San Francisco to Australia in October.  The Naval Historical Center of the Department of the Navy, writes of this voyage: 

While near the Fiji Islands on 12 November 1943 (local time -- 11 November in the U.S.) she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-21. More than a hundred lives were lost among her crew and passengers as a result of this attack and the subsequent abandonment of the ship. Attempts were made to tow Cape San Juan to port, but she sank on the following day.

Mrs. Lyons received a telegram from the War Department that William was Missing In Action. On Wednesday November 17^th, she received the telegram that he was Killed In Action.

Technical 5^th Class William Parker was Killed In Action On November 11, 1943.

He is memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial of the Missing in Action or Buried at Sea at the  Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery Cemetery, in Hawaii.

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