S1c Frederick Purdy Amon

Frederick Purdy Amon 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.

As for most Americans, the Great Depression was difficult for the Amons. Frederick, 19, was working as a grubber on a mushroom farm near Niles in southwest Michigan when the Census was conducted in April 1940. He reported working 20 weeks in 1939 for $120.

He was the oldest of 10 children in a household headed by his mother, Nola. One other sibling, 17-year-old Cleland, was also working — part-time for modest pay at a job-training program called the National Youth Administration. Their mother and father, Fred, a railroad worker for the Michigan Central, had divorced in June 1938.

Frederick joined the Navy on Oct. 8, 1940.

The family tried to keep the news of Mr. Amon’s death from their mother, recalled a sister, Betty Kirschbaum, on the 50th anniversary. When she did find out, “it aged her so,” the daughter said. “She went to bed that night with brown hair and woke up the next morning with white hair.”

The war was to hit the family even harder. Cleland, who enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942, was killed in May 1944 over Romania. Staff Sgt. Cleland was a top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber.

Frederick was born Jan. 9, 1921. Both he and Cleland were track athletes at Niles High School. The VFW post in Niles was named in their memory. The Niles Navy Mothers organized in March 1942 dedicated their efforts to the sailor, raising $10,000 to help hospitalized veterans and donating a clock on Main Street.