Last Living DC Government Employee Who Served In WWII Dies

WASHINGTON, DC — Leroy Tonic, 95, the last living D.C. government employee who served in World War II, died recently due to COVID-19, the illness associated with the coronavirus, according to a post on the D.C. Council's official Twitter account.

Tonic, who born in North Carolina in 1924, is one of 1,869 D.C. government employees whose name appears on a memorial plaque in the Wilson Building in D.C.

At the time Tonic was drafted into the Navy in January 1944, he was living at 1328 8th Street, N.W., in the District. After going through boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, he went on to serve at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, and Naval Air Station Pasco. He left the Navy after serving a little more than two years.

In 2010, District employees found a large broken plaque that no one knew anything about in a closet. On Veterans Day of that year, Council Chairman Vincent Gray reached out to the public asking for their help in identifying the plaque.

On Memorial Day 2016, Chairman Phil Mendelson announced that the plaque's origin had been revealed through archival and web research. It turned out to be a memorial for D.C. government employees who had served during WWII.

The District government researched all 1,869 names, hoping to find individuals who were still alive that could be honored by the city. They discovered Tonic was still alive and living in the District.

In December 2016, the memorial was reinstalled in the Wilson Building.

Sadly, we have learned that we lost World War II veteran & former DC government employee Leroy Tonic to COVID. We honored Mr. Tonic back in May, when our research revealed his name was on our World War II memorial & he was still in the area. Read more at: https://t.co/wZACbT1bc6 pic.twitter.com/Ygk6mVOQRj
— Council of DC (@councilofdc) May 6, 2020