Dean Poling | The Valdosta Daily TimesCopied articles about John E. McDonald, believed to be the only Hahira native killed in action during the Vietnam War, and Karen Conboy, a high school student who traded letters with him in 1969, have led to the Hahira Historical Society locating the soldier's pen pal.

HAHIRA, Ga. — The California pen pal of a Hahira soldier who died during the Vietnam War has been found.

Tim Coombs, president of the Hahira Historical Society, said he located the woman who shared letters as a teenager with Cpl. John E. McDonald of Hahira. McDonald is believed to be the only Hahira native killed in the Vietnam War, Coombs said.

Karen Conboy Matz lives in Reno, Nev. Coombs succeeded in locating and speaking to her Tuesday.

In early April, The Valdosta Daily Times wrote an article on how Coombs and the Hahira Historical Society wanted to find McDonald’s pen pal with hopes she might share the letters she received from him during his time in Vietnam.

Matz told The Valdosta Daily Times that she likely received 16-17 letters from McDonald and wrote a similar number to him from late 1968 until his death April 15, 1969.

She said she doesn’t believe she has any of McDonald’s letters from nearly 50 years ago, but she has begun looking through storage items.

Matz said she hopes to visit Hahira this summer.

THE SEARCH

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard McDonald, John E. McDonald attended Hahira High School. He was one of six children. He loved cars and going to the races, according to family. He reportedly worked in an air-conditioning plant before being drafted into the Army.

He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He served as a machine-gunner in South Vietnam. He had been in the Army 11 months and in Nam for about five months when the 22-year-old was killed in action April 15, 1969.

Interest in Karen Conboy and the missing letters began during research to name a road in honor of McDonald last fall. The City of Hahira and the Lowndes County Commission renamed one mile of Shiloh Road as the Cpl. John E. McDonald Memorial Highway.

“When a guy gives his life for his country, we ought to name the whole dang interstate for him,” Coombs said.

While researching information for the road naming, Coombs discovered the story of McDonald’s wartime pen pal, a 16-year-old girl named Karen Conboy. Her story was published in the Manteca, Calif., newspaper then republished May 22, 1969, in the Hahira Gold Leaf newspaper.

The Valdosta Daily Times published a story about Coombs searching for Conboy in April. Coombs said he received several responses from attorneys and a private investigator offering help finding her.

Coombs continued investigating, too. He found old newspapers from Manteka with a photo of the teen Karen Conboy. Using the photo as reference, he searched the Internet and found a woman of about the right age now who resembled the teenager. The older woman was Karen Matz, who works in a Reno, Nev., clinic.

Coombs called the clinic but was told Matz was on leave. Coombs shared his story and why he called. Clinic personnel took his name and number and promised to try reaching Matz.

SHE’S FOUND

In relaying Coombs’ message, as soon as the friend at the clinic said the name John E. McDonald, Matz said, “You can give him my number.”

Matz told The Times she was shocked to hear McDonald’s name after so many years and even more surprised that someone was looking for her in connection with him.

Though she never met McDonald face to face, Matz told The Times he was her first crush.

“You’re young and naive,” she said “You come from a small town. My parents were devout Catholics. I wasn’t even allowed to date. He was my first real crush.”

A sophomore at Manteca High School, 16-year-old Karen Conboy and her class were assigned in October 1968 to write Operation Christmas letters to military personnel serving in Vietnam.

It was the 60s, she said, and her fellow classmates weren’t thrilled by the prospect of becoming pen pals with soldiers.

“But I had a brother two years older than me who we knew would be drafted and sent to Vietnam, so I put a lot of thought into my letter,” she said.  “… I never expected to hear anything from it but he wrote back to me.”

So did she, and so did he.

Both children of large families, she wrote of how her older brother picked on her. He wrote back saying that’s what older brothers do. Matz said she recalled feeling like McDonald shared wisdom with her.

They grew close through the letters. She sent him pictures and he sent her a photo of himself kneeling in front of a water buffalo in Vietnam. She said Tuesday that she may still have the photo. She found half of a series of photo booth pictures of herself; she had kept half of the photos and sent the other half to McDonald.

He promised to come meet her when he returned home to the States.

She was 16. He was 22. She initially led her parents to believe McDonald was only about 18 but soon admitted the truth. The age difference concerned her parents but they felt there was no harm in sharing letters with a man serving his country overseas.

Still …

“Mom said he could come meet me but that was it,” Matz said. “He could meet me but she would be with me the whole time.”

The teen and the soldier would never meet.

LONG GOODBYES

Karen was away on a high school 4-H field trip. The destination was about 45-50 miles from home. She and classmates rode on a school bus and were to return by the same bus.

To her surprise, she saw her father pulling into the 4-H event in his Dodge Dart. She thought she might be in trouble. She thought something may have happened to her mom or one of her siblings.

“He said, you have to come home with me now,” Matz said. “You have received a telegram. Mom and I opened it and think you should come home to see it.”

He said nothing else.

At home, the telegram informed her that John McDonald had been killed. McDonald’s mother had sent the telegram from Hahira.

“I’ll never forget that day,” Matz said. “I could not stop crying. I didn’t go to school for a couple days. I was so devastated.”

HER LIFE

Her brother went to Vietnam and returned home.

Karen married and they had a son. Her husband died. She moved to Reno to be closer to her son while he attended school. He’s now a doctor in San Francisco. Matz stayed in Reno where she has many friends.

For years, her parents and the McDonalds regularly exchanged Christmas cards. Matz called the McDonalds for several years, even after she married and had a son. She estimated regularly calling until the late 1970s or early 1980s until time passed and the calls stopped.

“I felt like I knew the family after Johnny passed,” she said. “It was comforting for me and I think it was comforting for Johnny’s mom.”

She said she has never forgotten the young man she calls Johnny McDonald.

She said she hopes to fly to South Georgia and visit McDonald’s family this summer. She said she wants to see the road named for him.

“Had I known they were naming a road in honor of him,” Karen Conboy Matz said, “I would have jumped at the chance to be there then.”