S1c James Clynton Hughey

The Hughey family of Waverly, Tennessee worked hard to get by during the Depression.

In 1939, father James Hughey was a janitor, mother Rosa Fortner Hughey a laundress, and son James Clynton Hughey a laborer at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Between them, they managed to work only part of the year and earned $507. That’s equal to about $9,300 in 2020.

James, born Aug. 30, 1922, had completed seventh grade, according to the 1940 Census. He left the small town — population 1,318 — to enlist in the Navy that October.

Mr. Hughey was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he received third-degree  burns in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He died Dec. 9 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital.

He was buried in Hawaii for the duration of World War II. His body was returned to Waverly in northwest Tennessee in October 1947. A funeral at the Waverly Methodist Church was  followed by his burial at the Wyly Cemetery in Waverly.

Sources: The Tennessean of Nashville, Tennessee; Census; grave marker; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.