Joseph Edward McCann grew up in Everett, WA, and attended Garfield Elementary School, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and North Junior High School. Raised with four sisters by a single mother, he worked on fishing boats and hitchhiked to Seattle to work as a bellhop.

Tall for his age, at age 13 he convinced a stranger to sign papers so he could enlist in the U.S. Navy. At 15 he was a decorated veteran (Bronze Star Medal) after seeing action in North Africa and Sicily. He was the youngest coxswain in World War II, and landed with the first wave on D-Day at age 15. The Navy discovered his age when he was 16, but he was allowed to continue serving after the war. In August 1945, while on leave in Orlando, FL., he met the love of his life, Helen, who was working as a soda jerk. They married 10 days after they met. Although he was 16 years old, his ID said he was 21.

After the war, McCann was a family man, with three children, and settled in California. After being injured while on duty as a policeman, McCann took his family back to Everett in 1961. He worked as a juvenile probation officer, as a counselor for the Department of Corrections, for the Everett police in crime prevention, and as an analyst.

Death and Burial

Joseph Edward McCann died at the age of 80 on 11 March 2009. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett, WA.