Navy AMM 2nd Class Henry Edward Wolff was born in St. Louis County, Missouri in 1912, the son of Edward Henry Wolff (1880-1958) and Mathilda Theresa Halbach (1871-1928). His father supported the family as a farmer and would remarry after his wife's death to Pearl Skaggs in 1932.
His son Henry would enlist in the US Navy as an apprentice seaman in July 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri and reported to NAS Pensacola after basic training in August the same year. Here, he met and married Dorothy Leora Wadhams (1921-1999), the daughter of Ernest C. Wadhams and Marie H. King (1897-). Her parents married in 1919 in Pueblo, Colorado and divorced in Las Animas, CO in 1923. Marie then returned to Pensacola with her daughter Dorothy and lived for a time with her parents in Molino. Dorothy would graduate from Tate High School in 1939 and marry Henry on May 6, 1941 in Santa Rosa County. After their marriage, they set up housekeeping at 118 West Belmont Street where Dorothy was expecting their first child on July 24, 1942.
On Saturday, May 14, 1942, LTjg Paul F. Goodwin took off from NAS Pensacola on a flight heading northwest from the base. On board was Chief Machinist Phil L. Thompson, 2Class AMM Henry Edward Wolff, and 2Class AMM Elven F. Conners. But at 1:20 PM something went wrong that caused Goodwin to lose altitude and crash two miles east of the Lillian Bridge that crossed Perdido Bay. As they came down the plane struck a tree and Conners was able to get out of the aircraft but the other three was trapped as the plane caught fire. All three perished! Ironically, two other airmen had been killed the day before when their plane hit a violent downdraft ejecting two cadets out of the plane as they fell to their death.
That evening Dorothy was notified of her husband's death and she and her mother made arrangements for his burial in Barrancas Cemetery. Eight weeks later, she gave birth to their only child Henry Edward Wolff Jr. (1942-2002) who passed away in 2002 followed by his granddaughter Elizabeth Diane Wolff Bush in 2015.
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