Queer Places:
2915 Garber St, Berkeley, CA 94705
Sir Francis Drake
Hotel, now The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square, 335 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Sunset View Cemetery
El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California, USA
William Peace Gaddis III (December 30, 1918 - September 29, 2006) rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Navy before he was discharged from the military because he was homosexual. This discharge occurred in late 1943 or early 1944. After his time in the military he went on to become an electrician by trade and he traveled extensively around the globe from 1956-1958, writing letters to friends about the gay life in the various locations he visited. The correspondence begins in 1939 with letters received from a gay lover stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It contains significant holdings relating to the lives of gays and lesbians during this time, recorded as personal correspondence in diary-like form. Much of the writing describes underground gay life in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1939 onward, as Gaddis was born in Berkeley and was stationed in this area during part of his naval career.
William Peace Gaddis was born on December 30, 1918 in Berkeley, the son of Captain William Peace Gaddis, Jr, and Katharine Berryhill. His father had a career in the United States Navy and, because of his father's career, Gaddis spent part of his childhood living in China. He attended Shanghai American School, maintaining close ties with its association of alumni for many years and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Gaddis joined the U.S. Navy himself around the beginning of World War II. Gaddis spent most of his life, when he was not traveling or stationed elsewhere in the U.S. Navy, living in his family home at 2915 Garber Street, Berkeley.
In 2003, Gaddis was living in a facility where no one knew that he was gay and he was reluctant to offer additional information about himself, out of fear that friends or his relatives in the area might inadvertently discover his sexual orientation. William Peace Gaddis, Jr. Died peacefully September 19, 2006, in Santa Rosa, age 87, following a period of devoted care by family members and friends.
My published books:
