S1c Cecil Roy Ruddock

Born Aug. 24, 1919, Cecil Roy Ruddock spent most of his life in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a town of about 3,000 on a peninsula along the Gulf Coast west of Biloxi.

His mother, Alice, a homemaker, died in 1928, when he was nine. She was survived by her husband, Thomas, a pipefitter, and eight children.

Cecil attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School and St. Paul’s Church where he was an altar boy. He was also a Boy Scout. He completed 8th grade and by the time of the 1940 Census   worked as a service station attendant. He earned $520 the previous year for 52 weeks of work. A younger brother, Julius Leland, also worked at the gas station.

Cecil Ruddock enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 5, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was honored at a Requiem Mass in February 1942 at St. Paul’s, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Pass Christian was named in his memory.

His brother Julius Leland Ruddock served in World War II as an Army sergeant. Another younger brother, Thomas Ruddock Jr., was a master sergeant and served in both World War II and Korea.

Sources: The Daily Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi; the Pass Christian (Mississippi) Tarpon-Beacon; Navy muster roll; Census; grave markers and cenotaph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.