S1c Robert Edward Moody

Robert Edward Moody was born Feb. 25, 1919 on a farm near Carpenter, Mississippi 25 miles southeast of Vicksbuerg. His father, also named Robert, was a farmer and his mother, Linnie Irene Landers Moody, a homemaker.

The family, which included 10 children, soon moved about 5 miles north to Utica, population 652 in 1930, where Robert attended high school for two years. He served in North Carolina in the Civilian Conservations Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program for young men, then returned home to work with his father. The 1940 census said they worked 52 weeks in 1939 but earned no income from farming.

The son left Utica, by then population 818, in October 1940 to enlist in the Navy. He was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona by early December. Mr. Moody was a seaman first class when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

At least two brothers — Sam and Harmon — also served in the Navy in World War II.

The American Legion Post in Utica was named, in part, in his honor.

Sources: The Hinds County (Mississippi) Gazette; the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi; Census; Navy muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Affair death file. The Defense Department says Mr. Moody was born Feb. 25, 1919. However, the February 1920 Census said he was 1 and 10/12, which would make his birth year 1918. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.