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CWTP Clem Raymond House
Clem Raymond House was born Aug. 14, 1902 in Greene County in southwest Missouri. His mother, Frances Banes House, was a homemaker and his father, John House, a blacksmith.
Clem was 16 when his mother died of pellagra, a severe vitamin B3 deficiency.
The 1920 Census said the boy lived with his father, by then 68, and two older half-brothers at Republic, a town of about 1,100.
He completed two years of high school before he enlisted in the Navy. It isn’t clear when he joined, but he first went aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on June 16, 1925. For fun, he coached a softball team of men from the fire-rooms, which competed against sailors from the pump-rooms and other divisions on the ship.
Mr. House was a watertender and chief petty officer when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
He was survived by his widow. The 1940 Census identified her as Selina House, a resident of Long Beach, California. That was a popular home for families of Arizona men because it was adjacent to the ship’s home port at San Pedro. A survivor’s list said her name was Audrey House.