SF3c John Jr. Pugh

John Pugh Jr. was born in Oklahoma on April 6, 1920 according to enlistment records, but the 1920 Census conducted on Jan. 17 says a John L. Pugh Jr. was born in March 1919. His mother was Pearl B. Pugh in that census. She was a homemaker and his father was an oil-well driller.

The 1920 Census says the family was living in Covington, a town of 1,283 about 60 miles north of Oklahoma City.

By January 1931 a Johnie Pugh born April 6, 1920 was in School District No. 72 in Durant, about 170 miles south-southeast of Covington.

By April 1935 the son was just across the Oklahoma’s eastern border in Van Buren on the northeastern outskirts of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The April 9, 1940 U.S. Census for Rio Hondo, Texas near Brownsville includes a John Pugh who matches the son’s age and Oklahoma birth. It says he worked 48 weeks in 1939 servicing tractors and earned $820. He was a lodger at a private home.

Mr. Pugh Jr. enlisted in the Navy at Houston, Texas on June 7, 1940. He was a shipfitter 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: 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.