Delmar Dale Sibley was born in Mount Vernon, South Dakota, on Dec. 30, 1917 to Harry Sibley and Ethel Teesdale Sibley. The father farmed and the mother was a homemaker.

The mother died the next December. By the time of the 1920 census, Delmar was living with an aunt and uncle, Estella Sibley Jay and James P. Jay, in Mitchell, South Dakota. He was still with them in 1930, but by then they were in Rapid City, South Dakota. He completed 10th grade at the high school there, then enlisted in the Marines.

He served until March 1936, when he moved to Owego in south-central New York to live with another aunt and uncle, Lucie and Earl Sibley, because the family believed he might have better job prospects there. Earl Sibley was the Owego police chief.

He worked nearby at the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Co., a large manufacturer of boots and shoes. The 1940 census says he was a laster — a person who shapes the upper part of a shoe. He said he worked 50 weeks in 1939 for a total income of $800.

Mr. Sibley enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 15, 1940 and was a seaman first class when he was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His cousin, Mary Sibley Prince, told a reporter in 2007 that he was an outgoing man who liked people. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Owego dedicated its dining hall to Mr. Sibley that year.

Sources: Press and Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton, N.Y.; Census, South Dakota birth index; Mount Vernon, S.D. cemetery records; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.