SK1c George Woodrow Sutton

George Woodrow Sutton was five when his father died in 1918 and 10 when his mother died in 1923.

George was born March 22, 1913 in Greenup County in northeast Kentucky along the Ohio River – likely in Russell, population about 1,200, where George lived in 1920 and 1930.

By 1920 he was the sixth of at least seven children of the late Russell Aubrey Sutton, a railroad engineer, and Plascette “Settie” Carnahan Sutton, a homemaker. The household included two roomers.

By the time of the 1930 Census, George and his younger brother, Henry, were living with Inez, an older and by then married sister and her family in Russell. That same year, the Russell High School yearbook listed George as a junior and vice president of the Hi-Y club, a Christian organization dedicated to the four C’s — clean speech, clean sports, clean scholarship, and clean living.

It’s unclear when Mr. Sutton enlisted, but a Kentucky newspaper reported after his death that he had served for almost 11 years, meaning he enlisted about 1930.

He was a storekeeper and petty officer first class when he was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources: Kentucky birth index; Census; Russell High yearbook; Kentucky death records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.