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S1c Owen Newton Morris
Owen Newton Morris was born March 6, 1922 in Alabama. His mother, Annie Lou Hallis Morris, was a homemaker and his father, Samuel Green Morris, a track foreman at an iron ore mine.
By early 1930 the family lived in Jefferson County west of Birmingham. Owen was 11 when his mother died at Fairfield, Alabama about 6 miles west of Birmingham on July 4, 1933. His father was left with five minor-age children. Several more were already adults.
Son Owen enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 28, 1940 — less than a month before his father died.
Young Mr. Morris 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.
At least one of his brothers, Samuel Jr., served in the Navy from World War II through the war in Vietnam.
Sources: Census; Navy muster roll; U.S. Veterans Administration; Alabama death Index; Virginia death certificate; Defense Department. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.