I orphan heirloom. Jim Gilmer from Alabama caught my eye because his request involved, of all things, a fountain pen with the original owner’s name inscribed on it—Bill Lee Bell. Bill Bell. Unusual name. But it was the story behind the pen that really got my attention:

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e pen belonged to William Lee Bell, who was a WWII P47 un- derbolt pilot shot down on 16 November 1944. Mrs. Doris Cooper, whose husband, Dr. Luther B. Cooper, died in 2004, is a good friend of ours. She mentioned several times that her husband had this pen in his possession for 60 years, that had belonged to a good friend and fellow pilot, who was KIA while on a mission. Dr. Cooper and William L. Bell were both members of the 513th Fighter Squadron, 406th Fighter Group based all over Europe during the Second World War. Mrs. Cooper found the pen in Dr. Cooper’s personal e ects a er his death and recalled that he had o en expressed a wish that he could return the pen to William L. Bell’s family. Mrs. Cooper asked me if I could take on the challenge of nding a relative to whom she could return the pen. I told her that was probably beyond my capabilities but that I knew someone who might take the case. us I’m asking you to please consider doing just that.

What followed revealed that Jim was actually quite a detective. He detailed the sources and most of the information he had already gathered, primarily from Ancestry.com: