SM3c William Oscar Miller

Until he joined the Navy, William Oscar Miller lived his whole life in or near Findlay, Illinois, population 688, about 50 miles east-southeast of Springfield.

He was born Oct. 1, 1919 and enlisted on March 12, 1940, a year after the death of his father, Lewis, a sawyer.

His death and the Depression were surely hard on the family. The 1940 Census showed his mother, Nannie, then 60, doing housework as a Works Progress Administration home aide. The WPA was a federal jobs program. Mrs. Miller reported that in 1939 she worked 21 weeks and earned $126.

Her life became even more difficult on Dec. 7, 1941 when William Oscar Miller was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a signalman and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona.

A granddaughter, Reba Browning, said many years later that his death “just about killed” his mother, too. She died on June 8, 1946, at the age of 66.

Sources: Census records; Illinois death records; the Lexington Herald-Leader of Lexington, Kentucky. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.