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S1c Richard Corbett Brown
Richard Corbett Brown was born Sept. 17, 1918 in Fresno to Clifford C. Brown, a farmer, and Anna Feldvoss Brown, a homemaker and Danish immigrant.
They divorced about 1925. By 1930 his mother was remarried to Howard Kendall and living in Madera County while Richard was in Fresno with his paternal grandparents. He was living with the Kendalls when the 1940 Census was conducted.
Richard attended school through 8th grade in Chowchilla, California, where he was a star baseball player. In the local nightball league he was the top batter in 1940 and set a record for 10 successive safe hits. Mr. Brown enlisted in the Navy on 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.
Of the 1,177 sailors and marines killed on the Arizona, Mr. Brown’s body was one of the few recovered. He was returned to the mainland after the war and buried at the Chowchilla Cemetery.
VFW Post 9896 in Chowchilla was named in his honor in 1949.
Sources: Fresno (California) Bee; Census; grave marker; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; VFW. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.