RM2c Tom Savin

The 1916 birth of twins Tom and Jerry Savin was the subject of a mirthful account in the Omaha World-Herald.

The family home was under quarantine because another sibling had scarlet fever. On the morning before the twins’ birth, their father, George, moved his wife, Lillian Mengel Savin, and their other children to a neighbor’s and fumigated the Savin house.

They moved back home that evening, and the first twin, Tom, was born on Jan. 29, just before midnight. “I’ll make a reporter of him,” Mr. Savin, a reporter himself, was quoted as saying. Then, just after midnight, Jerry, the second son was born and the proud father said he hoped he would become a policeman.

The father, a long-time World-Herald employee, was a police reporter at the time.

Tom graduated from Technical High School in Omaha, where the 1931 yearbook said he was a member of the Senate Debating Club. The club also had its own newspaper, the Meteor.

Tom Savin enlisted in the Navy on Feb. 16, 1938. He married an Omaha woman, Mildred Gillam Savin, in December 1940.

He was a radioman 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.

His twin served in the Army.

Sources: the Omaha World-Herald; Navy muster rolls; Census; 1931 Technical High School yearbook; WWII draft card. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.