KINGWOOD, W.Va. — After 80 years classified as missing/non-recoverable, a World War II airman will be laid to rest in his hometown. The service for TBM-Avenger Pilot Lieutenant Jay Ross Manown is Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in the Kingwood Funeral Home.
Manown and a crew of Anthony Di Petta and Wilbur Mitts took off from the U.S.S. Enterprise on September 10 of 1944 to conduct air strikes against enemy targets in the Palau Islands in the South Pacific. The aircraft went down in a barrage of antiaircraft fire and was seen spinning to the ground with no parachutes deploying.
Search efforts were suspended in the summer of 1947, and in 1949 all three men were declared non-recoverable. Aviation Radioman First Class Wilbur A. Mitts, of Seaside, California, was accounted for in May 2023, and Aviation Ordnanceman First Class Anthony Di Petta, of Nutley, New Jersey, was accounted for in January 2023.
Eighty years after the mission in May of 2024, Manown became the final member of the crew to be recovered.
Manown’s niece Becky Sheets, born in Morgantown and a current Virginia resident, learned her uncle had been recovered from an article in an issue of the Smithsonian magazine.
“My first thought was that I can’t believe this is even possible after 80 years lost at sea and deemed non-recoverable,” Sheets said. “This is the impossible made possible, and I had no idea anyone was looking for the plane.”
Manown was born in Kingwood and graduated from Preston High School, according to Sheets. Manown was a student at West Virginia University with an interest in woodworking and music.
“I chose Kingwood as his burial place over other locations because he will be buried beside his parents; he was born in Kingwood and went to high school in Kingwood, so I wanted to bring him home,” Sheets said.
Growing up, she knew about her uncle through discussions, family get-togethers, and said she felt a connection. But she said there were never long discussions about his service.
“His photographs were prominently displayed with other family photographs,” Sheets said. “His name was often brought up, and they talked about him as if he had just kind of left the room.”
Manown’s mother told Sheets the TBM-Avenger he flew was named for his mother. He picked the nickname “Dutchess” because of her desire for perfection and added “Christian” to it because of her commitment to the church.
“His nicknamed his plane after her and called it “Dutchess,” Sheets said. “But she was also very involved in her church, so he nicknamed the plane the “Christian Dutchess” after her.”
Sheets has rekindled West Virginia family relationships and has developed strong bonds with Di Petta and Mitts, who attend the Tuesday service. The owner of the home Manown grew up in will open it up for the family for a reception after the service as well.
“They are coming—one from California and another from New Jersey,” Sheets said. “We are going to celebrate so-called “bringing the family together because we have formed kind of a sistership; they are very lovely ladies.”