He remained in the Navy Reserve, though, and was recalled that summer. By the end of September 1940 he was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona. Mr. Rogers was a watertender and chief petty officer when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Mr. Rogers was born in Jasper, Alabama on Sept. 9, 1892. His father, John Wesley, was a Baptist minister. His mother in the 1900 Census was identified as Ellen Barnard Rogers, but she was his step-mother. Records are unclear, but the woman who probably was his birth mother, Margaret Pittman Rogers, died in 1895.

Mr. Rogers enlisted on Dec. 8, 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia, and he re-enlisted many more times. He married Willie on March 24, 1919 at Calvary Baptist Church in Birmingham. Their son graduated from Auburn University the same year Mr. Rogers was killed.

Sources: The Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel; Chattanoogan.com; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Alabama marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.