Malcolm Hedrick Leigh was born March, 31, 1920 at Durham, North Carolina. His mother, Daisy Evans Leigh, was a homemaker and his father, Otie V. Leigh, a farm manager and later a gas station owner.

Malcolm, an only child, was 14 when his mother died of an undetermined cause. At some point the family moved to Bunn, where Malcolm attended the local high school through 1938. He also worked for his dad at the gas station.

Young Mr. Leigh enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 28, 1939. He was a gunner’s mate and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was severely burned in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7, 1941.

He died on Dec. 10 and was buried in Hawaii during the war. His body was returned to North Carolina in 1947 and buried with military honors at Oakwood Cemetery in Louisburg, N.C.

Sources: The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina; application for military headstone or marker; North Carolina death certificate; Census; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.