When William R. Loftis was born on July 3, 1887, his father, Frank, was 32 and his mother, Sarah, was 29. He had one brother and two sisters. Loftis was an electrician, and for ten years was employed by United Railroads in San Francisco, living part of that time in Alameda and the rest of the time in San Francisco. He was especially well known about the Geneva car barn of the United Railroads, which was his headquarters station in his United Railroads electrical work.

Loftis was drafted by a San Francisco board and sent to Camp Lewis. Three weeks later he went to New York with the first detachment of electricians and mechanics who were sent from Camp Lewis. After a short stay at Camp Mills, New York, he was assigned to the 1st United States Engineers and sent to France. He was a Woodman of the World and well known in Alameda and San Francisco. He was declared "Missing in Action" on May 28, 1918 and is commemorated on Tablets of the Missing, Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France.

Source of information: San Francisco Chronicle, June 13, 1918, page 11, www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com