- Rank:
- Branch:
- Home Town:
- Date Of Birth:
- Disposition:
- Family DNA on File:
F1c Purdy Renaker Bedford
Purdy Renaker Bedford was born Oct. 23, 1919, in Berry, Kentucky. His mother, Naomi Juett Bedford, was a homemaker and his father, Henry Bedford, a farmer.
The parents divorced some time between 1930 and 1940. Purdy, the youngest of three children, completed 8th grade in Cynthiana, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 1, 1937. He was a fireman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
There is a cenotaph in his memory at the cemetery in Berry, Kentucky, which is where his parents are buried.
Sources: Navy enlistment records; grave markers; the Lexington Herald-Leader. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.