Leo Francis McGuire

Leo Francis McGuire was born to Mary Elizabeth Revard (1872-1949) and Joseph Grant McGuire (1868-1940) on 7 October 1895 in Elgin, Chautauqua, Kansas. Revard and McGuire had six children, Ethel Aurelia (1891-1977), Josephine (1893-1895), Leo, Bird (1898-1970), William Theodore (1901-1971) and Charles Aloysius (1903-1988), before separating; Joseph Grant McGuire married Frances Mayra Foster (1886-1974) and had two more children, Joel Scott (1910-1927) and Frances Shaun (1913-1915). He was married a third time to Sarah Ellen Stevens (1858-1940).

Revard and her children moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, living on Barnette St.; they were listed as members of the Osage Nation. McGuire attended his early schooling in Ponca City, Oklahoma. According to the Pawhuska Journal and Osage Journal, McGuire was a student at *University College in Dublin, where from he, “enlisted in France in the ambulance corps in February of 1917. In September he was informed that he must return to this country for conscription of sign up his allegiance there. He chose the latter on account of the U-boat activities”.

“During his studies at Dublin, where he enrolled in 1914, World War I broke out. He enlisted in the ambulance corps of the French Army and during this service was awarded the highest French military honor”.

McGuire self-stated residency in the British Isles from October of 1916 to February of 1917.

*NOTE: University College has no record of McGuire’s attendance.

McGuire’s American enlistment date is 12 September 1917; he was assigned as a Mechanic to Section 647 of the U.S. Army Ambulance Service. Private First Class McGuire received the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star for his actions in the Fall of 1917;

“The General commanding the 74^th Division of Infantry cites for the medal of the division Driver Leo Francis McGuire of the S.S.U. No. 11, American volunteer engaged in ambulance section XI of 1916, has always given the example of duty and courage. He is notably distinguished for the qualities of technique and discipline especially at the recent attacks by the division before Danamart in effecting the removals at night over a road shelled and badly torn up by the enemy artillery.”

PFC McGuire also received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on 19 April 1918 near Seicheprey, France,

“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Private First Class Leo F. McGuire (ASN: 10388), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Section No. 647, Ambulance Service, A.E.F., near Seicheprey, France, 19 April 1918. Private First Class McGuire was on duty as driver of an ambulance at an advanced post. During April 19 and 20 he made several trips to and from a dressing station reached by an exposed road in daylight for the purpose of bringing back wounded. On one of these trips the ambulance was blown from the road by the explosion of a shell and he was knocked unconscious by the shock. On recovering consciousness he returned on foot. Although suffering from an injury in the back and not yet recovered from the shock, he wished to return to duty the afternoon of the same day, but was not permitted to do so by the medical officers until the afternoon of the following day.”

McGuire received the DSC on 13 July 1918 from Col. Percy L. Jones, Chief of U.S. Army Ambulance Service with the French Army, at Longchamps Race Track, Paris, France.

“He had an almost miraculous escape from death when a shell burst near the ambulance he was driving. That he is a good Catholic is shown by this extract from a letter written to his sister, ‘Do you know to what I attribute my escape? I was wearing the scapulars that Sister Basilissa had sent to me through you. I received them a few days before. Your good letter was in my pocket at the time. Something was watching over me that day. I wish you would write and thank Sister Basilissa for me. Tell her I am now wearing the scapulars and have been to Holy Communion this week’.”

McGuire was Honorably Discharged on 27 March 1919. According to several news articles, McGuire served with either the French or American Red Cross after his American Discharge, though the below statements’ validity are unconfirmed;

“Following World War I he served for a year in Poland during the Polish Revolution”.

“Commissioned a Captain in the French Army, *Norton Harges, and decorated…also with the Red Cross in Russia”.

His 1919 Passport Application lists him as residing in France with the A.R.C. (potentially: French Army Reserve Corps) and Polish Commission from March 1919 to an unknown date.

*NOTE: A 1961 obituary incorrectly states McGuire as a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. McGuire has been rumored to be one of the first Americans to receive the Distinguished Service Cross.

*NOTE: The early organizational name for the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps was the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps.

Upon his return to the United States, McGuire lived with his mother and siblings in Tulsa on East Second St. On 9 October 1920, McGuire married Ora Cecelia Robitaille (1901-1977) in Washington, DC; the couple had five children, Bird Francis (1920-1983), Patricia Elizabeth (1923-1967), Josephine Marie (1925-1995), William Napoleon (1927-2018), and Leo Anthony (1945-2003). In the 1930s, the family lived at 2626 South Portland St., Los Angeles, California, where McGuire worked in real estate. Into the 1940s and 1950s, the family lived at 1630 Buckingham Road- McGuire worked for the U.S. Engineering Department, then in real estate with the Texaco Oil Company.

McGuire died of an unknown cause on 10 July 1961 in Del Mar, San Diego, California. He is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California.