Raymond Wesley Garlington was born April 9, 1920 at Vincent, Texas to George Garlington, a farmer, and Alma O’Brien Garlington, a homemaker.

The family lived for many years in and around Wichita Falls, Texas. The parents operated a grocery in nearby City View in the 1930s. The Electra High yearbook showed Raymond as a freshman in 1937 and a member of the band the next year. He ended his schooling in 1939.

The parents and some of their 11 children moved to California in about 1940 and lived in El Cerrito and Albany.

Raymond enlisted in the Navy in Nov. 27, 1940. He 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 four of his brothers — Carl, Robert, Bennie and Harold, all served in the Army during the war.

Sources: the Oakland (California) Tribune; The Wichita Daily Times of Wichita Falls, Texas; Texas birth certificate; grave markers; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.