S1c Claude Albert Clemmens

Claude Albert Clemmens had a sad childhood. Born Feb. 15, 1919, in little Talala, Oklahoma, his mother died just before his 4th birthday. He was 13 when his father died after a long illness.

His mother, Maude Smith Clemmens, was a homemaker and his father, George Clemmens, a farmer. An older sister, Ella, became Claude’s guardian.

The son completed his schooling after 8th grade. When he applied to the Navy in February 1940 he listed his address as a Civilian Conservation Corps. camp in Blackwell, Oklahoma.

The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He served in Co. 2812.

He enlisted in the Navy on April 12, 1940, and 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.

His body was recovered and Ella had him buried after the war at Fair View Cemetery, where his parents are also buried.

Sources: Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; U.S. Headstone Application for Military Veterans; grave markers; the Claremore (Oklahoma) Progress. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.