F2c Robert Reaves Tiner

Robert Reaves Tiner was born April 5, 1916 to Cad R. Tiner, a farmer, and Rosie Lee McCool Tiner, a homemaker. The family lived on a farm five miles south of Athens, Texas, a town southeast of Dallas that by 1920 had a population of 3,176.

An only son but with four sisters, Robert attended schools nearby at Pine Grove, Sampson, and Stockard. The 1940 Census said he had completed the 8th grade and worked 52 weeks as a farm hand in 1939, earning $750 – the equivalent of about $15,000 in 2022 dollars. That was the entire income for a household reduced to four, including Rosie’s mother.

Robert enlisted in the Navy on July 30, 1940, and was a fireman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources: the Athens (Texas) Weekly Review; Texas birth certificate; Census; Navy muster roll.

This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.