Edward Wallace Lane was born May 26, 1918 in Miller, Missouri.

His parents divorced, and by the time of the 1930 Census his mother, Lillian, was married to William Robertson. They lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was a railroad switchman and she was a homemaker.

Edward completed 10th grade at Cheyenne High School and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, Co. 832, Camp F-17-W, at Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. The CCC, as it was known, was a Depression-era federal jobs program. It employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families.

Mr. Lane enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 15, 1939 in Denver. He was a coxswain and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources: Cheyenne High School yearbook; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Census; U.S. Veterans Administration; step-sister’s obituary. Photo courtesy of step-niece Donna Matz. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.