EM1c Woodrow Wilson Stephens

Woodrow Wilson Stephens was born Nov. 14, 1912 in newly created McCreary County, Kentucky on the Tennessee border. He was the youngest of nine children born to Ellen Goodin Stephens and Fountain T. Stephens.

By April 1930 Woodrow was the only child still living with his parents, who were in their mid-60s. Woodrow was a farm hand and his father a car repairman for a railroad.

The son enlisted in the Navy on July 29, 1935. He married Gwendolyn M. Holman in California in August 1938 while the U.S.S. Arizona was moored at her home port at San Pedro. The 1940 Census said they lived in nearby Long Beach and had an eight-month-old daughter.

Mr. Stephens was an electrician’s mate and petty officer first class on the Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

A brother, Newell, served in the Army during World War II.

Sources: the Lexington (Kentucky) Leader; The Courier-Journal of Lexington; Census; Navy muster roll; California marriage record. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.