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CCSTDP Clyde Westly Sutton
Clyde Westly Sutton was 44 and had been in the Navy 24 years when he died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was a commissary steward and chief petty officer on the U.S.S. Arizona.
He was survived by his widow, Ruby Mae Floyd Sutton, a bookkeeper who lived in Long Beach near the ship’s home port.
Mr. Sutton was born Feb. 5, 1897 in Arkansas to Samuel David Sutton, a trucker, and Nettie Phelan Sutton. By 1904 the family had moved to Seattle, Washington. He enlisted in 1917.
In a letter to his mother shortly before the attack, he wrote that “things seem to get worse all the time… It is hard to tell what will happen next.”
Sources: the Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville; Seattle (Washington) Daily Times; the News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington; Census; Navy muster roll; California and Washington marriage records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.