"Kilroy was here" (AP story, 14 Nov. 1945)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/3/07, Barry Popik <bapopik at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 14 November 1945, Lowell (MA) Sun, "How Kilroy Got There," pg. 4, col. 6:
> 20 November 1945, Portsmouth (NH) Herald, pg. 4, col. 3:
> Boston (AP) -- To those men of the army air force who wondered how
> "Kilroy" happened to be just ahead of them at air bases all over the
> world, here's the answer!
> ...
> The army public relations office said that a friend of Sgt. Francis J.
> Kilroy, Jr. of Everest, early in the war wrote on a barracks bulletin
> board at Boca Raton army air field in Florida: "Kilroy will be here
> next week."
> ...
> Kilroy was ill with the flu at the time.
> ...
> Later the catchy phrase was picked up by other airmen who changed it
> to: "Kilroy was here," and scribbled it on air force station walls.

The Boca Raton origin was given a few months earlier in this Chicago
Tribune article:

-----
"Meet Kilroy; He's GI Rival of Legion's Elmer," Joseph Hearst
Chicago Tribune, Aug 20, 1945, p. 9
Kilroy got his legendary start at Boca Raton, Fla. air base. One
version is that a fellow named Kilroy attended, after a fashion, radar
classes there. When he attended he went to sleep. Frequently he didn't
attend at all. His companions noticing his eccentric habits began
scribbling notes and leaving them in the classroom.
 -----


--Ben Zimmer

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