- February 24, 2025
Sisters Judy Makela and Carol Magill Woodard. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Jeff Biles, Territory Loss Prevention and Safety manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, shows the memorial card found inside the original box, believed to have been delivered sometime in 1944-1945. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
A memorial card honors Navy service member William J. Magill for his service in WWII. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The box was sent to Carol Magill Woodard's mother, with a Pawtucket, Rhode Island address. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Jeff Biles, Territory Loss Prevention and Safety manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, speaks during a ceremony at Volusia Memorial Park. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Carol Magill Woodard, of Ormond Beach, speaks during a ceremony honoring her brother at Volusia Memorial Park. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Jeff Biles, Territory Loss Prevention and Safety manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, hands Carol Magill Woodard the box containing her brother's burial flag. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Sisters Judy Makela and Carol Magill Woodard and their brother's burial flag. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Gary Hughes, supply chain manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, found the burial flag last November at the company's Taft Hub. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Carol Magill Woodard remembers the day the telegram arrived at her family home in 1944.
She was 4 years old. Her mother, clad in her house apron, was ironing and Woodard was sitting on the floor playing with paper dolls. A Western Union employee knocked on the door and delivered the news that her son, 17-year-old William J. Magill had died on Dec. 13, 1944 in the island of Leyte in the Philippines during World War II's Battle of Leyte Gulf.
"She was so upset, she went across to the police department, which was across the street, and she had her apron on, so I knew something was wrong," Woodard recalled. "And then my father was so devastated. After that day on, he went to church every single day before he would go to work."
Over 80 years later, on Monday, Feb. 24, Woodard was reunited with a memory of her half-brother, one that had yet to be unpacked from its original box.
Last November, Gary Hughes, supply chain manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, was going through the contents of a donated tote at the company's Taft hub when he came across a box from the headquarters of the American Graves Registration Service addressed to a Mrs. Lillian M. Allard, Woodard's mom. The box was sent to an address in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Magill was from originally from and had enlisted. The family was living in Florida at the time of his death.
It's not unusual for Goodwill to receive American flags in their donations, Hughes said. They normally will contact a nearby American Legion or VFW post to help properly retire the flags. But when he opened the box, he saw that the burial flag inside was still folded, and that the box contained a memorial card with Magill's name and photo. Being a Navy veteran himself, (Magill was a Navy service member), it struck a chord with him, he said.
"I knew we had to do something with it — we couldn't just send it off to be destroyed properly," Hughes said.
He showed the box to Jeff Biles, Territory Loss Prevention and Safety manager for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida. Being a former police officer — and an Army veteran himself — Biles contacted the Pawtucket Police Department to see if he could find Magill's family. An employee at the police department informed him there was an officer working with them who had the same last name, and said she'd try to help. Two weeks later, she called Biles and informed him that, not only had she found Magill's sister, but that she lived in Ormond Beach.
Biles then spoke with Woodard on the phone and proposed holding a small ceremony to honor her brother at Volusia Memorial Park. The box and its contents, Biles said, was a family treasure.
"I didn't want to just go to Carol and hand her this box," Biles said. "I wanted to make a presentation, because I think that this young soldier deserves that 80 years later."
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, a total of 16,043 soldiers and 7,270 sailors were killed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement of WWII.
Biles has worked for Goodwill Industries for about two and a half years. He said this was the first time he'd gotten the opportunity to do something so special for a local family.
"Even though he's been deceased for over 80 years, still, he's an American hero," Biles said.
Woodard's family has 43 veterans in total. She and Magill were two out of nine siblings in her family. When Biles called her and informed her of the box's contents, she said she was thrilled.
"I couldn't believe it because I had just become friends with a lady that belonged to our church that was from the Philippines, and she's over there now visiting the grave and taking pictures of my brother," Woodard said.
Magill is buried in the Manila American Cemetery.
Woodard said she plans to place her brother's flag alongside other military family memorabilia in her home.
Woodard's father always spoke about how Magill, his stepson, was a good kid. He became his stepfather when Magill was in 10th grade, just a couple years before he enlisted in the Navy.
One of her earliest memories involves Magill and her father — all three of them walking down the street, Magill dressed in uniform. Woodard was 3 years old, and Magill and her father were swinging her together across the street.
"I just wish my dad was here," Woodard said.
