By T.S. Akers
Major General William S. Key
Oklahoma is no
exception when it comes to military activity and the advance of
Freemasonry. Several Masonic leaders in Oklahoma
have had noteworthy military careers, one of those being Major General William
Shaffer Key.
General Key was born in Dudleyville,
Alabama on October 6, 1889.[ii] Both of his grandfathers had served the
Confederacy during the Civil War.[iii] Key enlisted in the Georgia National Guard on
April 7, 1907 and served as
a private until 1910 when he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the
Infantry.[iv] It was in 1911 that Key made his way to Oklahoma,
setting up his residence in Wewoka.
There he established the Key Hardware Company and the Wewoka Gas
Company.[v] On July
12, 1912, Key enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard and was again
commissioned a First Lieutenant in 1914.[vi] It was in Wewoka that he met his future bride
Irene Davis and they were married in 1914.[vii]
Key first saw action in 1916 with the First Infantry on the
Mexican Border during the Punitive Expedition.
He would be mustered into Federal service a second time in 1917 when the
Oklahoma National Guard left for France. Key rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
during WWI, serving as Quartermaster of the 7th Division. He would participate in the Champagne
Defensive, Chateau Thiery, St. Mihiel, and the Meusse-Argonne Offensive.[viii]
In 1924, Key was appointed to serve as Warden of the
Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester. During his tenure there he was able to place
the prison on a self operating basis requiring no state appropriation for maintenance. Key moved to Oklahoma
City in 1927 and became an independent oil and gas
operator and built the Key Building
which he owned and operated. In addition
to serving as Chairman of the State Pardon and Parole Board from 1928 to 1932,
Key also served as the director of the Security National Bank (1928-1929) and
the First National Bank and Trust Company (1929-1933). He again served as Warden of the State
Penitentiary in 1935 at the appointment of Governor E.W. Marland.[ix]
Key found himself in Federal service once more in 1935 as
the head of the Works Progress Administration in Oklahoma. In this capacity he oversaw the construction
of more than 350 schools and twenty libraries.
Of the 126 armories built in the United
States during this period, fifty-three were
constructed in Oklahoma. The WPA provided $43 million in funds to Oklahoma
by March of 1937 and employed over one hundred thousand Oklahomans.[x] Key entered the political arena briefly in
1938 as the Democratic candidate for governor.
He was defeated by Leon C. Phillips in a 3,000 vote margin.[xi]
Key, having been made a Brigadier General in 1928, was
promoted to Major General of the Line in 1937.[xii] As Commander of the 45th Infantry
Division, he was mobilized for maneuvers in Louisiana
and then assumed command of Fort Sill. In October of 1942, Key received his orders
for Europe as Provost Marshall General of the United
States Army. He would next be posted as
Commanding General of the American Forces in Iceland,
this being one of the most strategic points as it commanded the sea and air
lanes to Europe.
For his service in Iceland,
Key would be made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Falcon. He would complete his WWII service in Hungary
as Head of the American Armistice Control, directing the successful
repatriation of thousands of Hungarian displaced persons.[xiii]
Key had numerous passions throughout his lifetime. One of those was the Indian and military
history of Oklahoma, his adopted
home. Key was first elected to the Board
of Directors of the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1927. He went on to serve as Vice President from
1936 to 1950 and acting President in 1948 until his election as President in
1950. Key remained as President of the
Board until 1958. During his tenure on
the Board, the Oklahoma Historical Society broadened its program of work
including the marking of historic sites across the state.[xiv]
One of Key’s other passions was Freemasonry. He was raised a Master Mason in Seminole
Lodge No. 147 at Wewoka in 1913, serving as Worshipful Master in 1921. Key took the degrees of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (AASR)
in 1920 at Indian Consistory in McAlester. He would be exalted to the august degree of
Royal Arch Mason in Indian Chapter No. 1 and become a Royal and Select Master
of Union Council No. 3 both of McAlester. Key was dubbed and created a Knight of the Temple
in Bethlehem Commandery No. 45 of Oklahoma City.[xv]
Key was decorated a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor
of the Scottish Rite in 1929 and coroneted a Thirty-Third Degree Mason in
1937. During this period he was also
elected to the Board of the Masonic Charity Foundation in 1930, serving as
President in 1950. That same year Key
was appointed Deputy of the Supreme Council of the AASR
upon the death of Sovereign Grand Inspector General Rufus Renfrew. Key was elected an Active Member of the
Supreme Council in 1951 and served as Sovereign Grand Inspector General of Oklahoma
until his death in 1959.[xvi]
Like many great Oklahoma Masons, Key made a lasting
contribution to the landscape of Oklahoma Freemasonry. Prior to his death he secured Letters
Temporary for a Scottish Rite Valley in Tulsa. It was at the third Reunion
of the Tulsa Valley
in 1958 that Key invited Sovereign Grand Commander Luther A. Smith to attend. Key made the trip to Tulsa
from Oklahoma City each day of the
three day Reunion that December. Grand Commander Smith noted that Key did not
look well, but Key seemed as lively as ever.[xvii] Key would pass onto to that house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens on January
5, 1959.[xviii]
Key’s funeral was held at the First
Baptist Church
in Oklahoma City. The officiates were Herschel Hobbs, a member
of Guthrie Scottish Rite and Chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention, and
Dr. John Wesley Raley, president of Oklahoma Baptist University and former
Assistant Division Chaplain of the 45th Infantry Division.[xix]
Upon learning of the passing of Key, his wife received the
following message from the President.
January 21, 1959
Dear Mrs.
Key:
Word reached me recently of the
death, early this month of General Key.
He was a fine soldier and citizen, and served his country with devotion
and courage. I was fortunate to count
him among my friends.
Mrs.
Eisenhower joins me in deepest sympathy to you.
Sincerely,
Dwight D.
Eisenhower[xx]
General William Shaffer Key embodied all that defined the
American citizen soldier. He once
remarked “The greatest thing in life is friends. They comprise the greatest wealth a person
may have…”[xxi] Key was widely respected in the many facets
of his life and many would be well served to emulate his example.
William S. Key, 33°
(From the collections of the McAlester Scottish Rite)
[i] Jessica L. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of
Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717-1927 (North
Carolina: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2007).
[ii] “Key, William Shaffer,” Oklahoma Historical
Society’s Encyclopedia of Oklahoma
History and Culture, <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/k/ke014.html>,
Accessed 31 October 2013.
[iii] Muriel H. Wright, “William Shaffer Key: Oklahoma
Patriot,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma
37 (1959): 138.
[iv] Oklahoma Military Department, Historical
Annual National Guard of the State of Oklahoma
1938 (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Army
and Navy Publishing Co., 1938), 23.
[v] Wright, 141.
[vi] Oklahoma Military Department, 23.
[vii] Robert G. Davis, The Honored Men of Oklahoma
Scottish Rite Masonry (Oklahoma:
Oklahoma Lodge of Research, 1997), 55.
[viii] Oklahoma Military Department, 23.
[ix] Wright, 141-142.
[x] “Key, William Shaffer.”
[xi] Wright, 142.
[xii] Oklahoma Military Department, 23.
[xiii] Wright, 139-141.
[xiv] Ibid., 143.
[xv] Davis,
58.
[xvi] Ibid., 58.
[xvii] Ibid., 59.
[xviii] “Key, William Shaffer.”
[xix] Davis,
59.
[xx] Wright, 148.
[xxi] Davis., 55.
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