The tease appeared in the yearbook for McClain High in Greenfield, Ohio, a town of 4,228 southeast of Columbus.

Mr. Smith graduated in 1940 and that September traveled to Cincinnati with two other Greenfield men to enlist in the Navy. All three were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona. Mr. Smith and Hurschel Woodrow Wilson were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. James L. Wise was severely burned but survived.

Mr. Smith was a shipfitter and petty officer third class.

He was born at Greenfield on May 9, 1920, the fifth child of Clarence E. Smith, a farmer and later a Highland County commissioner, and Elma Ladd Smith, a homemaker. The mother died when John was 14.

When he applied to the Navy he said he was a welder. Later he said he was a laborer for U.S. Shoe Co. in Greenfield.

In September 1940 John married a Greenfield woman, Rosetta Leugers, and they had a daughter.

Mr. Smith was one of seven men from nearby communities in southwest Ohio on the ship. James Lowell Flannery, Donald William Caplinger, Ralph Ernest Poole and Mr. Wilson also died. Wendell Lee Flannery (James’s brother) and Mr. Wise survived.

Sources: The Press-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio; The Minster (Ohio) Post; US Census; McClain High yearbook; Ohio marriage license; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

Sources: The Press-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio; The Minster (Ohio) Post; US Census; McClain High yearbook; Ohio marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.