DeForest Kelley was born on January 20, 1920, in Atlanta, Georgia. After working as an actor in Hollywood, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces on March 3, 1943, and went on active duty beginning March 10, 1943. PFC Kelley served stateside during World War II making training films for the military before receiving an honorable discharge from the Army Air Forces on January 28, 1946. After leaving the military he returned to acting where he starred in many motion picture and television shows, the most famous of which was as Dr. Leonard McCoy in the Star Trek television show and movies. DeForest Kelley and his wife Carolyn Dowling were married from September 7, 1945, until his death on June 11, 1999. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.