S2c Charlie Leroy Burnett

Charlie Leroy Burnett was born Jan. 10, 1918 in Neubert, Tennessee southeast of Knoxville. His mother, Effie Monday Burnett, was a homemaker and his father, Joseph M. Burnett, a laborer at a rock quarry.

The mother was sick for two months before she died in March 1925. 

At the time of the 1930 Census the father and three children were living in Sevier County, Tennessee, in the east central part of the state. By 1940 they lived near Seymour in the same county.

Charlie enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 4, 1940, and was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona in early December. Mr. Burnett was a seaman second class when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

His father was a private in the quartermaster corps in World War I. His brother, Ralph, served in the Army from November 1942 until October 1945.

Sources: The Knoxville (Tennessee) Journal; Census; Tennessee death record; grave marker; Navy muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file. Marine photo. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.