SC1c Edward Klann

Edward Klann was born Oct. 10, 1907 to August Klann, a railroad employee and German immigrant, and Marie Wuttkofski Klann, a homemaker. The son was a lifelong member of Zion Lutheran. The Klann’s were German Lutherans who immigrated to America in 1879. 

Edward enlisted in the US Navy on October 11, 1938 and reported for duty aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on February 18, 1941.

“The bells of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on Military near Michigan tolled out a requiem Sunday afternoon in the first memorial service to be held in the City for a Detroit casualty in the attack on Pearl Harbor,” the Detroit Free Press reported in February 1942.

The service was held in memory of Edward Klann, a ship’s cook and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

His grandfather was one of the founders of the church in 1882.

After the younger Klann’s death, his family donated two 20-foot-tall stained glass windows to the church, at the base of which are the words “In memory of Edward Klann.”

Sixty years later the newspaper said that the “church has tended the windows carefully over the decades, installing a protective layer of glass on the outside to keep them safe from the elements and to make them bulletproof.”

Sources: The Detroit Free Press; Census. The Veterans Administration says Mr. Klann was born Oct. 10, 1905, but that seems to be two years early based on Census records and multiple news reports of his death. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.