Cold Case Identification Gives Illinois Veteran Full Military Honors in Chicago

A long-unclaimed U.S. Army veteran received full military honors in Chicago this week after investigators determined her identity nearly a decade after her death. Reba Caroline Bailey, a Women’s Army Corps private first class who served in the early 1960s, died in 2015 at age 75 in an assisted-living facility, suffering from dementia and unable to recall her birth name. She was buried as an unidentified person, known only by the self-chosen name “Seven,” in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, her grave marked by the number 4,985. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s missing-persons unit reopened the cold case in 2023, matching post-mortem fingerprints to a 1961 Army record from Bailey’s hometown of Danville, Illinois. Detectives then located surviving relatives, including grand-nephew Mark Bailey, enabling the military to recognise her service formally and order a proper headstone engraved “Reba Caroline Bailey, PFC US Army.” At Tuesday’s ceremony, an Army honor guard folded and presented the U.S. flag to family members, while a bugler sounded taps and a rifle team fired a 21-gun salute. Relatives placed a Chicago Cubs cap on the new marker, saying the tribute closed a decades-long search and underscored the commitment to account for veterans who die without next of kin.