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S1c Robert Ross Egnew
Robert Ross “Buddy” Egnew had completed three years of high school in Hoopeston, Illinois, when the Census was conducted in the spring of 1940.
He joined the Navy that October and 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.
He was born May 20, 1920 to Roscoe “Ross” Egnew, the owner of an auto garage, and Inez Brill Egnew, a homemaker. She died when her son was 16.
VFW Post 4826 in Hoopeston, which is in east central Illinois, is named in his memory. There’s also a marker in his memory at Floral Hill Cemetery in Hoopeston.
Sources: Census; Navy muster roll; Illinois death record; VFW; cemetery marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.