S2c Lonnie Harris Oglesby

Lonnie Harris Oglesby and his twin brother, Connie, were born Jan. 4, 1919 at Mathiston, a community of about 460 in north-central Mississippi. Their father, Alexander Oglesby, was a farmer and their mother, Anne Marion Oglesby, a homemaker.

The family moved south to Jackson in 1933. The twins graduated from high school in 1938, then attended Hinds Junior College, now Hinds Community College in Raymond about 15 miles west of Jackson. At that time, the college included students in their last two years of high school and their first two years of college.

Lonnie Oglesby enlisted in the Navy on June 20, 1941, and by the end of August was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona. He was a seaman second class on the battleship when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was honoed at a memorial service in February 1942 at Van Winkle Baptist Church in Jackson.

Connie, who had been a police officer, enlisted in the Navy in December 1942 and served until January 1946. The third Oglesby son, Floyd, became a pilot and earned his wings in the Army Air Corps in March 1943. He survived the war but died in 1947 at the Army’s flagship  hospital, Walter Reed, in Washington, D.C., after a long illness.

Sources: the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, MIssissippi; the Jackson Daily News of Jackson, Mississippi; The Garland (Texas) Daily News; Census; Navy muster rolls; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file; Defense Department. Newspaper photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.