GM3c Paul Edwin Wimberley

Paul Edwin Wimberley was born July 17, 1918 in Henry County in northwestern Tennessee 15 miles south of Kentucky. His mother, Rubie McCullough Wimberley, was a homemaker and his father, Archie I. Wimberley, a farmer.

They had three sons, including one who died in 1915 just shy of his first birthday.

Paul enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 13, 1939. He was a gunner’s mate 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.

He and another local man killed at Manilla Bay were honored at a memorial service in January 1942 at West Paris Baptist Church. Camp Tyson officers, Grove High School, Boy Scout troops, and the American Legion were among those taking part. Amplifiers were installed in the basement so those not able to fit in the church could at least listen in.

His brother James served in the Army from March 1942 through November 1945.

Sources: The Paris (Tennessee) Post Intelligencer; 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.