Julia Marie Zecchini was born on 8 October 1915, Newcomb, Tennessee, the daughter of Thomas Peter Zecchini and Mary Ann Wippel. She had several siblings, Bertha Mae Zecchini, Regina Zecchini, Christine Bernice Zecchini, Katherine Margaret Zecchini, Louise Matilda Zecchini, Cecilia Ann Zecchini, Tommy Veronica Zecchini and Thomas Peter “T.P.” Zecchini. She attended Jellico High School. In 1941 she was a member of the 6th District Champion Girls Basketball team from the school.
Julie Zecchini died on 8 October 1944 at the U.S. Naval Hospital Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee of sodium fluoride poisoning. She was a passenger on the U.S.S. Talamanca in 1942, to be transferred to the U.S. Naval Mobile Hospital #4 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Her cousin, Peter Zecchini, is also memorialized by the ETVMA (he died in active service in 1943).
My maternal great-grandmother. Naval Nurse in WWII, biological mother of Janet Pace, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Italian American. Julia, I will always be fascinated by your story and thankful that you brought my beautiful grandmother into this world. I understand your life was short and full of challenges. I hope it was full of love and happiness too. Thankfully, your great-granddaughter.
–Submitted by Mary Alison Kent, www.findagrave.com, April 13, 2013.
- Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade Nurse
- Date of birth: 8 October 1915
- Date of death: 8 October 1944
- County: Campbell
- Hometown: Jellico
- Service Branch: Navy
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Saint Boniface Catholic Cemetery, Williamsburg, Whitley County, KY
- Location In Memorial: Pillar VII, Middle Panel
- Sponsored by: John B. Romeiser
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