BKR2c James Joseph Jr. Landry

James Joseph Landry Jr. was born Jan. 19, 1920 to James Landry, a Canadian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran of World War I. The father was a buffer at an auto factory in Amesbury, Massachusetts 35 miles north of Boston, and his wife, Helen, was a waitress.

James Jr. was a baker and petty officer second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He had enlisted in October 1937.

A requiem Mass honored Mr. Landry at St. Joseph’s Church in Amesbury in January 1942.

He is remembered as the namesake of the high school stadium. Built in 1938 as a Depression-era federal works project, the stadium was named in Mr. Landry’s honor in May 1942 at a ceremony attended by 2,500 in a city of then less than 11,000 population. By the early 1990s the playing field was still being used, but the stadium was falling apart. Voters, given the choice of tearing it down or restoring it, voted for the latter. Thanks to a combination of taxpayer and private money, Landry Stadium was re-dedicated in 2002.

The tragedy of their only child’s death was compounded in September 1942 when Mrs. Landry killed herself. By then, her husband was working several hours away at a war factory.

Sources: the Amesbury (Massachusetts) Daily News; The Boston Globe; Boston Herald; Boston Traveler; the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant; cenotaph; Census; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.