S1c Willard Dale La Salle

Willard Dale La Salle was born Oct. 27, 1918 at Weiser, Idaho 60 miles northwest of Boise. His mother, Blanche Rowe La Salle, was a homemaker, and his father, Emerson A. La Salle, a farmer.

By 1920 the family, which included an older daughter, had moved across the nearby Snake River to Malheur County in southeast Oregon where the father continued to farm. There were eventually six children.

By April 1, 1935 the family was about 150 miles north in the small town of Dixie, Washington 10 miles northwest of Walla Walla near the Oregon border. The spring 1940 Census said Willard was a laborer on a wheat farm at Walla Walla, and had completed three years of high school, reportedly in Dixie. He worked for 39 weeks in 1939 and earned $500.

He also attended Washington State College, now Washington State University, as a forestry agriculture major.

Mr. La Salle enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 7, 1940. He 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.

Sources; Idaho birth certificate; Census; Navy muster roll; Washington State University; the New Braunfels (Texs) Herald-Zeitung. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.