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BM1c Paul Henry Hedrick,
Paul Henry Hedrick was born May 12, 1913 in Catawba County, North Carolina northwest of Charlotte 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 1930, but it appears that Mr. Hedrick soon left to enlist in the Navy.
He married a California woman, 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 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.