Edward Paul Manion was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was born in Decatur in central Illinois on Nov. 10, 1922 to Richard Manion, a tinner and a solderer, and Agnes O’Donnell Manion, a homemaker. She died of eclampsia when Edward Paul was five.

He completed his schooling after 8th grade at East Moline. He served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program.

The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He was in Co. 2608 at Des Plaines, Illinois.

After his CCC discharge he enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 28, 1940.

A memorial service paid tribute to the seaman in February 1942 at the First Nazarene Church in Decatur. The Navy Mothers Club helped organize the service.

His brothers, Richard and Wayne, served in the Army during World War II.

Sources: The Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review; The Dispatch of Moline, Illinois; the Quad-City (Iowa) Times; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster rolls; Defense Department. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.