2nd Lt. Eleanor Campbell Nate, WAC - Hempstead, TX
Posted by: 
jhuoni
N 30° 04.975 W 096° 04.045
14R E 782666 N 3331601
Located in Hempstead Cemetery, this bench memorializes 2nd Lt. Eleanor Campbell Nate, who was one of six service members lost somewhere between Tampa, FL and San Antonio, TX, in a bomber crash in December 1942.
Waymark Code: WMVJ8C
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/24/2017
Views: 1
The bench simply reads:
In memory of Second Officer Eleanor
Campbell Nate, W.A.C. Who died in the service
of her country over the Gulf of Mexico, December 28, 1942
-----------------------
With a little research we learn more about Eleanor C. Nate:
From American Women During World War II: An Encyclopedia (
visit link)
Eleanore Campbell Nate had been the first Corps member to die; killed at Christmas 1942, she was killed on leave with her husband, an Army Major, when his plane crashed over the Gulf of Mexico.
Chicago Tribune August 5, 1945
Gift Of Library To Honor WAC Lost In Crash (
visit link)
In memory of WAC Lt. Eleanor Campbell Nate, daughter of Mrs. R.M. Campbell of Wilmette, Kappa Alpha Theta sorority will present a library to the American Merchant Marine Library Association for the installation on a merchant ship.
Lt. Nate and her husband, Maj. Joseph Nate, lost their lives in December 1942, when the army bomber they were passengers was lost in a flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
A former Spanish teacher on the north shore, Lt. Nate was one of the first women in the Chicago area to enter military service. She was graduated from the University of Chicago and did graduate work in Northwestern University and the University of Mexico in Mexico City.
Times Herald, Olean, NY, Dec 30, 1942, found on Eleanor C. Tate's Find-A-Grave page: (
visit link)
Six Persons On Plane Missing
Tampa, FLA. - Six persons, including a 36-year-old member of the Women’s Army Auxillary Corps. have been missing aboard a medium Army bomber between Tampa, Fla. and San Antonio, Tex., since Monday, military authorities said today.
The W.A.A.C.’s Third Officer, Eleanor C. Tate, thirty-six, of Wilmette, Ill, wife of Maj. Joseph C. Tate, thirty-nine, who was also a passenger on the missing craft.
The plane was on a cross-country flight between McDill Field here and San Antonio. It was not known whether the plane had taken a course over the Gulf of Mexico or had flown north over land.