Island Icon: Molly McGowan

By Coronado Historical Association

Molly McGowan is a well-known name in Coronado. One of the most prestigious awards at Coronado High School is named for Molly. Mary Adair “Molly” McGowan was born September 12, 1926 to U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Leo James McGowan and Irvine McGowan.

The family frequently moved across the country, following LCDR McGowan’s Naval career. LCDR McGowan held varying positions relating to Naval aviation and submarines, but his service as torpedo officer on the USS Somers and USS Holland were what brought the family to Coronado multiple times.

In 1939, while serving at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island, LCDR McGowan unexpectedly died from a brain tumor. At the time, Molly was in eighth grade.

After their loss, Mrs. McGowan moved with Molly back to Coronado permanently, where they had the support of old Navy friends. A particularly close family friend was another Navy widow who had relocated back to Coronado, Mrs. Richard F. Cross. Jr. Lieutenant Cross, a lighter-thanair pioneer, was lost at sea when the airship USS Akron crashed in 1933. Mrs. Cross’ daughter, Joanne Cross, became a close friend of Molly’s and both girls entered their freshman year at Coronado High School in 1940.

Molly quickly became active in the community. She participated in several pageants at Christ Episcopal Church, was an initiate of the Tri-Y Club, and won third place with her beloved dog Nelly, a German shepherd, in Mrs. Paul Wegeforth’s 1941 dog show.

At school, Molly had a tight knit circle of eight friends, including Joanne and Julia Viera (neé Yanquell). Julia remembers Molly as “beautiful and vivacious” as well as popular. She was a frequent guest at social parties and even hosted a Valentine’s party for twenty guests at the Commissioned Officer’s Mess at North Island in 1941.

Later that year, Molly along with Joanne and Julia, announced that they would be hosting a formal dance at the Officer’s Club slated for December 23rd. They sent invitations to the entire school. The three young women posed for a photograph taken by Sidney Studio that was printed in the Coronado Journal. Unfortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, caused the dance to be cancelled.

The photograph taken of the hostesses is the last known photograph taken of Molly. Tragically, she developed Hodgkins Lymphoma at age 15. Her classmates and friends knew she was ill, but only the Cross family knew how awful the outcome would be. Today, Hodgkins is survivable but it was a fatal diagnosis in those days. Molly died January 10, 1943 at age 16 during her junior year of high school. Mrs. Viera recalls, “As teens, in the midst of WWII, we knew tragedy, but not among our contemporaries, and we were shocked.”

In tribute to her daughter, Mrs. Irvine McGowan funded the Molly McGowan Memorial Award at Coronado High School. The award started in 1944; what would have been Molly’s graduating class. The award recognizes one senior girl graduate for her outstanding scholarship and student leadership. Molly’s close friend Joanne Cross became the first recipient. The award continues to this day to recognize CHS’ top students.

After her daughter’s death, Irvine McGowan continued to live and work in Coronado. She was a successful realtor, associated with Strand Realty. She married Capt. James Conner Pollock in 1949. As the years went by, many of Molly’s friends and classmates would visit Mrs. McGowan in her house on Seventh Street. The home where she helped plan Molly’s events in high school, where Molly died, and where she lived until well past 100 years. An oil portrait of Molly hung over the fireplace. It was painted from the Sidney Studio photograph by local artist Mary McCartin.

“Mrs. Mac would look at us, and our spouses and children, in our 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, and exclaim in her sweet voice, ‘This is how old my child would be.’ Then she would delve into our lives and adventures with the deepest interest,” Mrs. Viera remembers.

About the time of the Class of 1944’s 50th class anniversary in 1994, Julia Viera’s husband carried a frail Mrs. McGowan into the high school auditorium for the awards ceremony. That was the first and last time she would bring herself to witness the award ceremony in person. She experienced a lifetime of grieving, and yet she was sustained not only by Molly’s classmates, but by the thought of all those outstanding young Coronado women who went forth into life with Molly’s legacy.