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S2c William Walter Henderson
William Walter Henderson was born Oct. 6, 1920 in Bondurant, Iowa, then a town of 274 northeast of Des Moines.
His father, Walter L. Henderson, was a farmer and later worked at a washing machine factory in Newton about 20 miles east. His mother, Iva Ayers Henderson, was a homemaker. The parents divorced before 1938.
The young Mr. Henderson graduated from high school in Newton in 1939 and while in school was a carrier for The Des Moines Register & Tribune for seven years. He married in Des Moines in June 1939, but the union was brief.
He served in the Iowa National Guard — Co. A of the 136th medical regiment.
Mr. Henderson enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 11, 1940, and was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Sources: The Des Moines (Iowa) Register; Iowa birth, marriage and death records; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll.