A packed memorial service honored “Zeke”, Loyd McDonald Zimmerman at the Kennett Armory in Missouri’s southeastern panhandle in February 1942. The school chorus and a quartet of American Legionaires performed. Clergymen from several churches spoke.

Mr. Zimmerman was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

He was born May 5, 1921 about 80 miles north of Kennett in Glen Allen, Missouri. His father, Frank Zimmerman, was a laborer and his mother, Lucy Alice Cornelison Zimmerman, a homemaker. They later separated. The son completed eight grade in 1937 and worked for one month in a job he described as “help in packing.”

Mr. Zimmerman enlisted on Oct. 15, 1940. His younger brother, Floyd, became an electrician’s mate in the Naval Reserve and served on a heavy cruiser, the U.S.S. Salt Lake City. He survived the war.

Sources: Clippings from unidentified newspapers; birth certificates; Veterans Administration letter; Navy enlistment records and muster rolls. Special thanks to Geoff Davis for news clippings and family records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona and Operation 85.