A Tragic WW II Love Story

On July 7, 1944, Lt. Charles McDaniel and his co-pilot, John Withrow, were taking a B-25 bomber to the base in Cherry Point, North Carolina, when they hit bad weather, so they landed at Morris Field in Charlotte. Since they were so close, the pair decided to spend the night in Palmerville, where McDaniel had grown up and his bride of seven months still lived.

The next morning, the weather looked better, and they prepared to leave. McDaniel told Elizabeth that he would circle Palmer Mountain and tip a wing to let her know everything was okay, and they would fly on to Cherry Point. He did this, but, with a loud groan, the plane crashed into Badin Lake.

Military personnel launched an immediate search, but they never found anything except the floating debris. Then and more recently, divers reported seeing the badly mangled plane but never saw any bodies. Since the pilots should have been strapped in, this remains a mystery.

Elizabeth Hill McDaniel was understandably devastated. She had stood and watched the plane go down and disappear. Reportedly, she later married, but it ended in divorce. She's buried in a graveyard on Palmer Mountain. Beside her gravestone is the memorial one for her first husband. Badin Lake still holds the wreckage.

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