Claire Windsors son...

[Dee Deforest]

Can anyone tell me what happened to Claires son David William Bowes? or he changed his name to William Willis Windsor? I am not sure i have posted this in the right place ... I'm still learning how to maneuver around the site...I'm the opposite of tech savvy!
Thanks in advance for letting me be part of your group!
Dee Deforest

[Rick Lanham]

Info from Ancestry.com:

A man named William W. Windsor enlisted in the US Army on 17 May 1945 as a private at Fort McArthur, San Pedro, CA. He gave his residence as Los Angeles. He had four years of high school, and was married. He enlisted for the duration of the war or other emergency and was released 2 Nov. 1946. He died 12 Dec. 1973. His height is listed as 66, but his weight is listed as 666, so maybe they are both suspect.
Born in Colorado, 1916, which matches what the internet has for Claire's son.

Social Security Death Index gives (zip code)92649 Huntington Beach, Orange, California, USA as his last residence.
CA Death Index gives his place of death as Los Angeles, 12 Dec. 1973, born 8 Sep. 1916; Colorado.

Findagrave listing: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... d=85550152&" target="_blank" target="_blank

Here are all the people named Windsor, including Claire, in that cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... ln=windsor" target="_blank

The census records show more than one person with similar names/ages/birthplaces, so I haven't found him there.

Rick

[Rick Lanham]

1940 Census: He's living with Claire and her folks at 202 South Orange Dr, Los Angeles. He's listed as 22 years old, single, working in the planning department of an airplane factory. He's called David Wills Bowes Jr., and the index tacks Windsor on the end, before Jr. It says that he had completed four years of college.

Rick

[Dee Deforest]

Thank you Rick! So he may have passed the year after his Mom did.. I just thought it odd that after a certain period there just seemed to be no trace of him.
Dee

[Rick Lanham]

You're welcome. It's confusing because of the name changes and there's another guy around with a similar name born in another month, April, of the same year, and he was also in the service, etc., etc.

Rick

[cawkercitykid]

Billy was named David Willis Bowes Jr. after his father. Both Claire and Billy legally changed their names later in life. Bill worked in the aviation industry, but at the moment I can't remember exactly if it was in design or just what his job description was. However, working in an industry which relied on government contracts during the McCarthy era, the family had to keep quiet about the fact that Claire had known Charlie Chaplin quite well in the early days of her career. Charlie was great with children and always had a small toy or candy to give little Billy when he came to call on Claire at the house. The relationship between Claire and Charlie ended abruptly when Lois Weber hatched a publicity stunt without letting Charlie in on the plans.



The family has donated to our museum the scrapbook Claire kept of clippings of Bill. It was one of several items she did not give to UCLA. I will try to get more information posted as soon as I am able.

[cawkercitykid]

This is the only picture I have of Bill's real dad. Bill was the spitting image of his father. I don't know if he had a good singing voice like his dad had.

Both Denver newspapers sensationalized Willis and Ola's marriage. Clara (Ola) was 22 years old. No, the divorce did not happen for a couple of years later--Ola, sister Nellie and mother Rosella were on their way back to Cawker City from Seattle and made a short stop in Denver to finalize a few of the wedding plans. They were already planning a June wedding. No one knew they had already tied the knot until the Denver papers arrived in Cawker a few days later!

[cawkercitykid]

I have not had time to get a biography of Billy up yet, but here is Claire's scrapbook which she kept of clippings of Billy.

http://clairewindsor.weebly.com/claire- ... billy.html" target="_blank

[cawkercitykid]

Here is a new photo of Claire and Billy:



I found this at the Wisconsin State Historical site.

[Dee Deforest]

Wow thanks so much!

[cawkercitykid]

Just found the second one to go with the first. By the way, this is the same photo shoot as the closeup posted previously.