MM1c Edmund Russell Johnson

Edmund Russell Johnson was born May 29, 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Sophie Buczkowski Johnson, was a homemaker and Polish immigrant. His father worked at a cotton mill.

In the January 1920 Census the family was living in Boston’s North End near dock yards.  About 1923, the family, which by then included a daughter, moved to Alameda County, California. The 1930 Census said both parents worked at a pickle factory.

Edmund graduated from high school, then enlisted in the Navy on June 10, 1936. Mr. Johnson was a machinist’s mate and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was survived by his widow, Martha Eva Ball Johnson, and their two-year-old son, Edmund Gerald. The son served in the military a total of 17 months in the 1950s, first in the Navy and then in the Army.

Sources: East Bay (California) Times; Census; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file; California birth index; Navy muster roll; Defense Department. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.