Lawrence A. Williams was born June 3, 1914 in Oxford, Ohio, to Ruth Barnett Williams, a homemaker, and Lawrence W. Williams, a farmer and later the owner of a taxi business.

The father died of poisoning in March 1931 in a case the coroner could not prove a suicide or homicide.

Young Mr. Williams graduated in 1932 from McGuffey High School in Oxford and in 1936 from Miami University in Oxford, where he earned a bachelor of architecture degree. In college he worked at a hardware store and later for the federal government checking architectural drawings.

He enlisted in the Naval Reserve on May 6, 1940 and soon began aviation training. He was appointed an ensign in May 1941.

Mr. Williams flew a Vought OS2U Kingfisher, a catapult-launched observation floatplane on the U.S.S. Arizona.

A Navy photo from Sept. 6, 1941 shows Mr. Williams and radioman Glenn H. Lane returning to the Arizona. Their plane is in the water, with Mr. Williams holding Mr. Lane by his belt as Lane hooks the Vought to a crane cable that will lift them back aboard.

The floatplane scouted for possible Japanese ships and subs, and also carried the mail between ship and shore when the Arizona was at sea on maneuvers. In a letter typed at 6 a.m. on Nov. 29, 1941, Mr. Williams said “two of us” would soon leave for Pearl Harbor with the mail. “They always send two planes in when the ship is out of sight of land as a safety precaution.”

The same letter, written to Louise, his girlfriend, said there was talk about the Arizona heading to its home port in California around the new year. “However I have my fingers crossed and I’m halfway believing that we make it home for Christmas. It isn’t likely since the Japs are mixing things up here in the Pacific. For all I know they might be making trouble so we won’t be able to go home for Christmas.”

One week later Mr. Williams was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor., Dec. 7, 1941. His body was never recovered. His battle station was in one of the planes, but none could be launched on Dec. 7.

Mr. Lane was blown off the ship by one of the four major bombs that hit the Arizona. Though covered with oil, burned, and injured by shrapnel, he managed to swim to the nearby U.S.S. Nevada. He served during the rest of World War II, as well as during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

There is a cenotaph for Mr. Williams at Oxford Cemetery, where his parents are buried.

Sources: The Oxford (Ohio) Press; Dayton (Ohio) Daily News; Hamilton (Ohio) Journal News; McGuffey High School yearbook; Miami University yearbook; Ohio birth certificate; grave markers; Census; Naval History and Heritage Command; JoeSalter.com; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Census. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.