TAMPA, Fla. — Bill Monfort wears a baseball cap emblazoned with “Kamikaze WW II survivor.” It’s a fitting phrase because the retired Navy veteran saw plenty of action in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
“That hat has gotten me a lot of free meals,” Monfort, who celebrated his 105th birthday on Friday, told the Tampa Bay Times.
Monfort, who has lived in Tampa, Florida, since 1964, is definitely a survivor. He only missed three Pacific battles during World War II, the newspaper reported: Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. Seventeen months ago he overcame a bout with COVID-19, spending three weeks in the hospital before recovering.
Born in Buena Vista, Georgia, on Dec. 17, 1916, William Edward Monfort graduated from Buena Vista High School. He lived on a farm, where his parents grew corn, cotton and peanuts and also raised hogs, according to a Dec. 7, 2012, story in The Tampa Tribune.
Monfort enlisted in the Navy when he was 19, the newspaper reported. He was aboard the USS Mahon, 800 miles from Honolulu, on Dec. 7, 1941, waiting to meet up with the USS Lexington in Hawaii, the Tribune reported. According to the Times, Monfort, who was a radio operator on the ship, was one of the first to hear the message, “Air raid Pearl Harbor: This is no drill.”
He saw the destruction at Pearl Harbor four days later.
“You had to see the destruction to realize how bad it was,” Monfort told the Tribune. “The first thing we saw on our approach to the entrance was the Army base with the B-17s. We saw all the hangars blown up and planes scattered all over.”
While aboard the USS Claxton on Nov. 1, 1944, Monfort witnessed one of the first Japanese suicide pilot attacks in Leyte Gulf, Philippines, the Tribune reported.
After the war, Monfort returned to Georgia, where he worked as manager of Smith Chain Saw Store in Macon. According to The Nashville Banner, he married Bessie Anna Flood on Nov. 24, 1955, in Nashville, Tennessee. Bessie Monfort, a native of Egypt, Georgia, had graduated from the Georgia Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta and was working for the Veterans Administration in Nashville, according to the Banner’s online archives.
While Bill Monfort served his country well, his biggest contribution has been his work for people with developmental disabilities.
His commitment began in 1959 with the birth of his first child. That commitment would culminate with an award from the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2017, honoring him as a Lightning Community Hero, according to NHL.com.
Rossie Ann Monfort, was born in 1959 and weighed only 2 pounds. The infant’s prognosis was so poor that the hospital did not even record her footprints. Rossie Monfort was blind, but was able to play the piano with her toes, the Tribune reported in 1971.
The Monforts placed their daughter into the nearest state institution to Tampa, the Sunland Hospital chain. Bill Monfort decided to start his own charity, organizing the Sunland Parents Group of Hillsborough County, NHL.com reported. After raising money for bus trips, parents could visit their children and see the conditions at Sunland. Working with other families, the Monforts helped start Angels Unaware in 1973 and raised $68,000 to buy and equip a building where people with disabilities could live in a home setting.
Angels Unaware opened its first home in 1976 and now has eight campuses. It the longest-running group home in the Tampa Bay region, the Times reported.
Bessie Monfort died on Dec. 14, 2001.
Bill Monfort continued his work with Angels Unaware. His recognition from the Lightning came with a $50,000 award, which he donated to Angels Unaware, NHL.com reported. Bessie Monfort had served on the charity’s original board of directors, the Tribune reported in 2001.
Bill Monfort was diagnosed with COVID-19 in July 2020, according to the Times. After recovering, the 103-year-old decided to move into an assisted living home, the newspaper reported.
“If I went back to my apartment in Tampa, I could live a lot cheaper than here,” Monfort told the Times. “But at my age, it probably wouldn’t be long before I’d be needing some help in the home. Here, they’ve got everything.”
Bill Monfort has lived a rich, full life and has seen plenty. As one of the last surviving members of World War II, he wants people to remember the war.
“Just that it happened,” he told the Times. “We were there.”