S2c Ray Ellison Reed

Ray Ellison Reed was born Feb. 12, 1922 in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma south of Tulsa. His mother, Gertie Liles Reed, was a homemaker and his father, John E. Reed, a farmer. They had moved in a covered wagon from their native Arkansas to Oklahoma a few years before Ray was born. The family included an older daughter.

The spring 1940 Census said Ray had completed two years of high school but was no longer enrolled. He worked 12 weeks in 1939 and earned $90 as a laborer for the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program.

He enlisted in the Navy in January 1941. He was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources: The Okmulgee (Oklahoma) Daily Times; Census; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.