Basilones family was an old school Italian family who most likely expected her to move in with them an be a professional widow in mourning forever.
While she never did remarry she was a woman who in the 40's made the effort to actually join the Marine Corps which would have been extremely rare itself and was most likely a woman who moved to the beat of a different drummer than an old line east coast Itallian family in the 40's..
Iran is not a terrorist country!LittleZeke aka: "LittleBrain" 3/10/15

Maybe the grief was too strong or the lack of family connection as she'd never met them.
In The Pacific she says that John didn't sign the insurance papers.
However I've read that she got the $10,000 and gave it to the family.