James William Robinson was born Oct. 10, 1923 in Coahoma, a town of about 600 people in west Texas. His mother, Beemie Neel Robinson, was a homemaker and his father, Oley Robinson, a butcher at a slaughterhouse. They also had two older daughters.

One daughter was nine when she died in 1929 of kidney disease.

By April 1935 the family was living in Big Spring , Texas. Sometime between April 1, 1935 and 1938 James, his mother, and his sister moved to California.

His father was killed on New Year’s Day 1939 when his car, stopped on a railroad track near Midland, Texas, was struck by a passenger train.

The spring 1940 Census said William and his mother lived in the Los Angeles household of his by-then married sister and her family. His mother was a clerk at a pie shop.

When James applied to the Navy in January 1941 he said he was in 10th grade. He enlisted on Jan. 18. 

Mr. Robinson 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. He is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl in Honolulu.

Sources: Big Spring (Texas) Daily Herald; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Texas death certificates. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.