Michigan Secretary of State allows Gold Star mother's license plate after controversy

FOX 2 (WJBK) - Paula Love wasn’t entirely surprised when her daughter Holly showed an interest in the military.

"She had no fear that’s how she was," Love said. "She went from being a cadet to being the A Company commander, and it was in 10th grade she told me she wanted to join the Army."

In 2004, Private First Class Holly McGeogh was stationed in Iraq and living her dream of serving in the military when she was killed. She was just 19.

"It was when they were on their way to Kirkuk that her vehicle rolled over an IED (explosive) all three of them in her vehicle, died,"  Paula said.

Devastated and distraught, Holly’s mother soon came up with a way to honor her daughter - a personalized license plate with Holly’s nickname - Willy.

Private First Class Holly McGeough was Killed in Action in 2004.

"She had these really chubby thighs, and I would be changing her diapers or something and I would take her legs and I would say 'holly, bolly, wolly, willy and 'Willy' stuck," Paula said.

Fast forward to 2004 — the year Holly was killed.

"The Secretary of State actually sent me Willy, and I probably had it two or three months, but then I received a letter that somebody else had that same plate in Michigan," Paula said. "So they had to replace it with W 1 LLY."

But now all these years later — the Secretary of State initially refused to issue Paula a new duplicate plate.

"You can see it’s like it’s peeling," she said. "I know I’m going to get pulled over because you obviously can’t read it’s W 1 LLY."

Paula received a form letter stating the Secretary of State will not issue personalized plates that are considered obscene.

"I said to Bruce, I said 'I don’t understand - what’s offensive with W 1 LLY?'"

Willy can be a person’s name but it’s also a slang word for male genitalia, the Secretary of State responded. The Commerce Township mother wrote a handwritten letter to the Secretary of State

"'W 1 LLY is for my daughter, my hero, and the only female Killed In Action in Operation Iraqi Freedom from Michigan,'" Paula wrote.

She initially was rejected twice - but after FOX 2's original story, the Secretary of State ultimately issued the plate.

"We are issuing the plate. It got flagged because we are in the midst of revising and formalizing our review process for personalized plates," the deputy chief of communications said in a statement.