When a reporter visited Jimmy Stewart’s study in 1980, family photographs and personal mementos covered one wall. Among them was an honorable-service citation for Ronald McLean, the son Stewart had adopted two decades earlier. The document marked a military loss, but its place among family pictures reflected a relationship that had begun long before Ronald wore a uniform.
Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean on August 9, 1949. Gloria was divorced and raising Ronald, about five, and Michael, three. Stewart adopted both boys. Twin daughters, Judy and Kelly, were born in May 1951, giving the couple four children.
In an interview that year, Stewart recalled that he had gone from marrying at 41 to having four children in roughly a year and a half. Contemporary accounts described him as treating all four as his children, rather than distinguishing the boys from his daughters. Ronald kept the McLean surname, including in military records, but was part of Stewart’s family from childhood.
A father and a Marine
Stewart had served as a B-24 pilot in World War II, flying combat missions over Europe. He remained in the Air Force Reserve for decades and retired as a brigadier general in 1968. Ronald chose the Marine Corps, became an officer and served with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division.
On June 8, 1969, 24-year-old First Lieutenant Ronald McLean was on patrol in Quảng Trị Province when his unit came under enemy fire. Contemporary reporting said he was struck by machine-gun fire. Accounts connected with his posthumous commendation said he exposed himself to danger while directing and assisting his men. He was killed in the attack.
Ronald received the Silver Star posthumously. In September 1969, Gloria accepted the medal at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Stewart kept the family’s grief largely private. Years later, he described the Vietnam War as mismanaged but necessary, then expressed the family’s pride in Ronald.
A name on the Wall
The family continued to honor Ronald. TIME later reported that Stewart and Gloria made annual trips to Washington to pay tribute to him. After the Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in 1982, his name appeared on Panel 23 West, Line 113.
The memorial records Ronald W. McLean’s name, but not the family behind it: his mother, his brother, his two younger sisters or the actor who adopted him when he was a boy. In Stewart’s study, the citation among family photographs offered a quieter record of that connection. Ronald remained McLean in official accounts, and Stewart’s household remembered him as one of their four children.
