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  • Rank: Seaman 1st Class
  • Serial No: 360-25-59
  • Branch: US Navy
  • Enlisted: Nov 8, 1940
  • Home Town: Iola, TX
  • Date Of Birth: March 26, 1920
  • Age: 21
  • Height: 6'-0"
  • Disposition: Unrecovered
  • Family DNA on File:

S1c Waymon Boney Blount

Waymon Boney Blount studied arts and sciences at the University of Texas at Austin from September 1939 until June 1940.
 
It must have seemed a world apart from where he was born and grew up in rural Grimes County, Texas about 70 miles northwest of Houston. 
 

Mr. Blount was born March 26, 1920 at Iola to Robert O. Blount, a farmer, and Lillia Burns Blount, a homemaker. The 1930 Census identified him, then 10, and three older siblings as farm helpers. The Great Depression left 16 percent or more of the county’s residents unemployed or on government relief work by 1937.

Boney, as he was known, enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 8, 1940, earning $21 a month as an apprentice seaman.

He played on the baseball team on the U.S.S. Arizona.

The photo shows Mr. Blount with the arrow above him. It is in the Arizona State Library Archive courtesy of one of his brothers, R.H. Blount.

He was a seaman first class when he was killed on the ship in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

At least two brothers also served in World War II — Talmadge in the U.S. Army Air Corps and Rhea in the Navy. They survived.

There is a cenotaph for Boney at Evergreen Cemetery in Grimes County. His parents are buried there.

Waymon Boney Blount marker

Note: He signed his name as Waymon, which is what his birth certificate says. His cenotaph also says Waymon. However, his typewritten Navy enlistment paper and other Navy records spell it Wayman.

 
Sources: Austin Daily Texan; Austin City Directory for 1940; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; grave marker and cenotaph; Texas State Historical Society; Texas birth certificate. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
 
NOTE: If you are a family member related to this crew member of the U.S.S. Arizona, or have additional information, pictures or documents to share about his life or service to our county please contact us through our FAMILY MEMBER SUBMISSION FORM.