COX Warren John Richardson

Warren John Richardson was 14 when his father, Charles, died of heart disease in November 1932 in Covington, Kentucky across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

It was the depths of the Great Depression and his mother, Freda Rose Kocher Richardson, was left with six children between the ages of about 9 and 22. She had not worked outside the home and had a 6th-grade education.

Warren, the second youngest, born May 11, 1918, attended Holmes High School. He enlisted in the Navy on Feb. 1, 1938. He had recently re-enlisted when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was a coxswain and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona.

It isn’t clear whether Mr. Richardson knew two other Holmes High students who also died on the Arizona. William Walker Ford and Edward Alfred Walther graduated from Holmes in 1940 and enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 5, 1940.  The school was small enough — with about 150 students in each grade — that it seems likely that he knew them before all three served on the Arizona.

At least one of Mr. Richardson’s brothers, Everett, also served in World War II. He was in the Army and lived to age 92.

Sources:  the Kentucky Enquirer and the Kentucky Post of Covington; the Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer; Census; Navy muster roll; Kentucky death certificate; grave markers. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.