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BM1c Paul Henry Hedrick,
Paul Henry Hedrick was born May 12, 1913 in Catawba County, North Carolina to Essie Spencer Hedrick and Orlando Hedrick.
The marriage ended before 1920, when the boy and his mother were living in Catawba with her parents. They were still together in Catawba — population 340 — in early 1930 and Paul worked on his grandparents’ farm.
When he applied to the Navy that spring he said he’d completed 9th grade. He enlisted on July 9, 1930.
He married a California woman, Frances Jean Pelletier, in Los Angeles in December 1934.
Mr. Hedrick was a boatswain’s mate and petty officer first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
He was survived by his widow and their young daughter.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5206 in Hendersonville, North Carolina, was named in honor of Mr. Hedrick and another local man, Mark Alexander Rhodes, also killed on the Arizona. Mr. Hedrick’s father, a telegraph operator, lived in Hendersonville.
Sources: The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer; the Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times; HendersonHeritage.com; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; California marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.