Harvey Lee Pike was born Nov. 3, 1921 in Newnan, Georgia. His mother, Lotice Abner Pike, was a homemaker and his father, John Arthur Pike, a farmer. 

The family moved a bit, but Harvey mostly grew up in Franklin, Georgia, a town of about 300. He’d completed 11th grade at the local high school when he enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 28, 1939.

Mr. Pike was an electrician’s mate and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His father was a World War I veteran, serving as an Army private from May 1918 until February 1919. At least two other sons also served in the Navy — Bonnie during the Korean War and Junior during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Robert, a son from the father’s first marriage, served in the Army during World War II.

The father experienced great loss during his life. A son by his first wife, Mary, died in July 1915 and then she died that December. A son by his second wife, Lotice, died in 1932 and a daughter in 1938.

Sources: Census; grave markers; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; application for military headstone; obituary.