CBMP Comer A. Wilson

Comer A. Wilson was born March 23, 1907 at Andalusia, Alabama, a county seat of about 5,000 circa 12 miles north of Florida. His mother, Hannah Moore Wilson, was a homemaker and his father, Paul Wilson, a sawyer at a lumber mill.

The mother died in November 1911, leaving his father with Comer and two sisters — all under age five.

Comer graduated from Covington County High School and served as a private first class in a local machine gun company of the National Guard. He enlisted in the Navy about 1930. He was a boatswain’s mate and chief petty officer on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Mr. Wilson was survived by his widow, Martha Anna Murphree Wilson. They married in 1937 in Andalusia and made their home in San Pedro, California, home port of the Arizona. Their son, Comer Jr., was born two months after his father’s death.

Mr. Wilson’s body was recovered and buried in Hawaii until after the war. It was returned in 1947 and he was buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Andalusia.

The Amvets post in Andalusia was organized in 1949 and named in his memory.

Sources: The Andalusia (Alabama) Star; The Toop (Alabama) Weekly News; The Florala (Alabama) News; grave markers; Census; military application for headstone or marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.