GM2c Harry Theodore Taylor

Harry Theodore Taylor was born Nov. 24, 1918 in Nebraska to Albert Taylor and Etta Fisher Taylor.

By the time of the January 1920 Census the boy lived in North Platte, Nebraska, with his mother, six full- or half-siblings, and his step-father, James Eggers, a boiler helper for a railroad. By 1930 the family had moved to Guilford Township in central Indiana where Mr. Eggers farmed.

Harry Taylor attended Danville High School, where he played basketball. He would have graduated in 1938 but quit to enlist in the Navy on Nov. 4, 1937.

Mr. Taylor was a gunner’s mate and petty officer second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

The American Legion organized a service in his memory at Danville South Cemetery in April 1942. His body was never recovered from the sunken battleship, but there is a cenotaph at the cemetery.

Sources: The Republican of Danville, Indiana; The Indianapolis News; Census; Navy muster rolls. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.