EM1c John James Robinson

John James Robinson was born Aug. 1, 1919 at Livingston in south-central Montana. His mother, Ida Vaud Reid Robinson, was a homemaker and his father, Loy Halbert Robinson, a rancher. John was the only son of their seven children.

One daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was four when she was run over by a reaping machine in a grain field in August 1925.

Sometime between 1930 and April 1935 the family moved to Portland, Oregon.

Young Mr. Robinson enlisted in the Navy on Valentine’s Day 1938. He was an electrician’s mate and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

At least one of his sisters, Dorothy, also served in the military. She graduated in 1942 from the University of Oregon Medical School Department of Nursing Education and then served in the Army Nursing Corps.

Sources: The Missoulian of Missoula, Montana; The World of Coos Bays, Oregon; Montana birth and death records; Census; Navy muster roll; military registration card; Washington marriage records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.