2LT Kenneth Raymond Wilkes was born 18 Jun 1915 in Hammonton, California. He was the only child of Raymond and Mabel M. (Tresize) Wilkes. His father worked as a gold miner for Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields, a crane operator for a ship building firm, and then again as an engineer which required frequent travel. His mother worked as a sales lady in a drug store and took in lodgers. Kenneth attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California. The family was renting a home at 766 18th Street in Oakland where they lived for several years. Kenneth graduated from San Francisco State College (shown in his track team uniform to the left) and then went to work for the San Francisco City Department of Recreation for which he earned a reported 1939 income of $804. That same year his father, having apparently ended his overseas work, was working as a dredge operator earning $1734 in 1939. In 1941 he married Bonnie Belle Eaden who was just beginning her teaching career and the couple lived at 325 Capistrano Avenue in San Francisco, California.
Kenneth was drafted in May 1942. As a college graduate with a 4-year degree and some management skills from his previous employment, he was eventually identified as officer "material". He would have then been sent to Officer Candidate School and sent to the European theater. 2LT Wilkes was transferred from the replacement depot to C Company 116th Infantry on 1 Jul 1944 to serve as a platoon leader. It is recorded on the morning report that he was wounded by shrapnel in the legs and buttocks on 4 Jul 1944 but remained on duty. He was apparently wounded again on 12 Jul 1944 and this time it was serious and he was evacuated to hospital. He died of his wound(s) in a field hospital on 13 Jul 1944.
2LT Wilkes was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California on 6 Feb 1948.
Kenneth and Bonnie had no children.
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