S1c Leland Jones

Leland Jones was born April 11, 1921 and enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 19, 1939. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

An early 1942 Navy list of Arizona casualties said his hometown was Centerville in Hickman County about 50 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. A circa 1990 update said he had ties to Arkansas and Tennessee, and said his father Hobart [or Hobert] S. Jones could be contacted via Mrs. Mack Breece at Centerville, Tennessee. She was Hobart’s daughter, Eddie Lee Jones Breece. She was born in 1919 in Gordonsburg in Lewis County about 15 miles south of Centerville. 

The 1920 census shows the family still in Lewis County. The daughter’s  mother was Dorothy C. Johnston Jones. It is likely that Dorothy, who died in 1926, was also Leland’s mother. Hobart Jones was a farm laborer. His full name may have been Samuel Hobart Jones.

The Veterans Administration says Leland Jones lived at Jacksonville, Arkansas near Little Rock – possibly when he enlisted.

Sources: U.S. Veterans Administration; the Hickman County (Tennessee) Times; grave markers; Tennessee marriage licenses; Census; Navy muster roll, Arizona casualty records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.