Jack McKenna
| Date and Place of Birth: | June 10, 1914 New York, NY |
| Date and Place of Death: | October 8, 1943 Camp Howze, TX |
| Baseball Experience: | Amateur |
| Position: | Pitcher |
| Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Military Unit: | US Army |
| Area Served: | United States |
John J. "Jack" McKenna was born in New York on June 10, 1914. His family moved to Hollis in Queens, New York, when he was a young boy, Jack attended Jamaica High School and starred as a pitcher for the South Hollis team and Graybar Club of the Queens Baseball Alliance. He also played football with the Hollis Cardinals.
Jack worked as a salesman in the publishing industry and entered military service in 1940. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and went on to earn a commission at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. By 1943, he was a liaison pilot with a field artillery detachment at Camp Howze, near Gainesville, Texas.
Second Lieutenant McKenna, who had married Texas school teacher Margaret Briggs, in May 1943, was tragically killed in a flying accident at Camp Howze on October 8, 1943.
His body was returned to New York, and , following requiem mass at St. Pascal Roman Catholic Church in Hollis, he was buried at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York.
Date Added September 15, 2017
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