Actor Patrick Wilson, son of Mathews native Mary Kathryn Burton Wilson, is starring in the new film “Midway,” about the World War II battle that took place six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He plays Rear Admiral Edwin Layton, an intelligence officer. The movie opened in theaters last weekend.

Mary Kathryn Wilson said she and her husband, John, attended the Hawaii premiere of the film in mid-October as guests of their son. She said the movie “is a good historical lesson” and she thought Mathews residents might enjoy it because “the Navy is deeply rooted” in the county. 

While in Hawaii, said Wilson, the family toured Pearl Harbor, the museum, and the Battleship Missouri, also known as the Mighty Mo. Wilson said she recalled as a child that Captain G.C. Hudgins of Mathews was “summonsed by the Navy to take the Mighty Mo out to sea during Hurricane Hazel.”

“It was the ‘talk of the county’ at th...