France to honor McKee, oldest four-star U.S. general; veteran with Cape ties will turn 100

Gen. Seth McKee, a highly decorated World War II veteran and former Cape Girardeau resident, will be honored with another decoration this week. On Saturday, McKee will be awarded the rank of Chevalier (Knight) in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

The ceremony will take place Saturday in a private ceremony in the Arizona senior living center where McKee and his wife of 75 years, Sally, reside.

In addition to a recognition of McKee's role in the liberation of France, the event also will be a celebration of McKee's life. The four-star general will turn 100 the next day.

McKee is the oldest living American four-star general. The Legion of Honor is the highest honor France bestows on its citizens and on foreign nationals.

McKee's military career is long and storied. It began in 1935 when he joined the Army National Guard. In 1938, he joined the Air Force as an aviation cadet.

It was as an airman he served in World War II, deployed to England in January 1944 as deputy commander of the 370th fighter group, flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

In the Lightning, McKee took part in 69 combat missions and is credited with the downing of two enemy aircraft. He flew cover for the D-Day invasion and was involved in bombing missions at Saint-Lo, the Falaise Gap and Battle of the Bulge.

After the war, he held positions of increasing responsibility, eventually receiving the rank of four-star general. His career often took him overseas, where he held positions such as chief technical adviser to the Italian Air Force and chief of the training branch for the U.S. Air Force headquarters in Europe. He retired in 1973 as commander of the North American Air Defense Command.

McKee was born in Arkansas but spent much of his youth in Southeast Missouri, graduating from Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1934 and attending Southeast Missouri State University from 1934 to 1937.

His brother, Pat McKee, still lives in Cape Girardeau and will travel to Arizona for the ceremony, according to Dewey Schade.

Schade is a friend of McKee and was involved in the efforts to secure the latest honor for him. The process, he said, took more than two years.

Schade said McKee's honor is just one part of a greater effort by the French government and by retired lieutenant colonel Robert Johnson to honor those American servicemen involved in the World War II liberation of France. With most of them well into their 90s, he said, time is of the essence.

McKee lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with Sally, who worked in hospitals as a "Gray Lady," an American Red Cross volunteer, while her husband served. The P-38 he flew was named in her honor: "My Gal Sal."

bbrown@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Scottsdale, AZ