S2c Berry Stanley Jolley

Berry Stanley Jolley’s life was filled with sorrow.

He was born May 13, 1923 in Spanish Fork, Utah south of Provo to Zelpha Huber Jolley, a homemaker, and Nephi Jolley, a laborer.

Berry was four when his 9-year-old sister, Eva, died of a heart condition in January 1928 at home in Burley, Idaho. His mother, Zelpha Huber Jolley, suffered a ruptured appendix and died that September. Less than six months later, appendicitis also killed his father, Nephi Jolley.

Berry was taken in and raised by an aunt and uncle, Alameda and William Tinsley.

He left Burley, in south central Idaho, soon after his 18th birthday to enlist in the Navy.

Mr. Jolley was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that December.

He was honored at a memorial service at the Latter-Day Saints Tabernacle in Burley in March 1942. The American Legion and War Mothers chapter No. 1 participated.

Two of his brothers served in the Army during the war and survived — Raymond from February 1941 through March 1946 and Iliff from early 1942 until the war ended.

Sources: Photos provided by: niece Susan Gage.  The Burley (Idaho) Herald; The Herald-Bulletin of Burley; South Idaho Press of Burley, Idaho; Utah military record; Idaho death certificates; Census; Navy muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.