Everett Titterington's family finds closure 82 years after Pearl Harbor

An Iowa man who was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, will now be buried surrounded by his family – some who knew him, some who did not.

Everett Titterington left his home in Milford, Iowa, to enlist in the U.S. Navy on Thursday, December 14, 1939. But just two years later, at the age of 21, he died aboard the USS Oklahoma when it sank after being hit by a torpedo.

“He was a ghost that haunted us and hung over our family like a cloud,” said April McKinnon, his great-niece who now lives in California. “I've literally been hearing about it since I realized what was going on.”

For decades, the Titterington family described him as “lost at Pearl Harbor”

Now 50 years old, McKinnon and her family finally have answers about what happened to their family member known to close friends and family as “Buzz.”

Titterington was the eldest of five children. He had two younger brothers, Lyle and Robert, and two younger sisters, Mildred and Dorothy.

“He went to war and never came home,” McKinnon said. “I don't remember my grandmother (Mildred) ever saying he was killed at Pearl Harbor. It was more like he was lost at Pearl Harbor and we now know he was killed at Pearl Harbor.”

On December 7, 1941, more than 400 Marines lost their lives aboard the USS Oklahoma. The remains recovered from the attack, which could not be identified, were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, according to a report by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), an organization under the U.S. Department of Defense.

Titterington's remains, as well as those of other individuals aboard the USS Oklahoma, were later identified after the DPAA received authorization to re-examine unidentified remains from the USS Oklahoma.

His remains were identified on March 23, 2021, the report said. The remains, which were eventually released to his family, included bones from his arm, a leg and his skull.

82 years after his death, he will be buried on Monday, September 9, at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

Governor Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Monday in his honor.

What was Titterington doing in the Navy at Pearl Harbor?

After three months of basic training in Illinois, he returned to his hometown of Milford for the last time.

Aboard the USS Oklahoma, Titterington worked his way up from apprentice seaman to stoker within a year. According to a press release from the Navy Office of Community Outreach, he was promoted to stoker first class on September 1, 1941.

But just months after his promotion, the USS Oklahoma was hit by a “large number of Japanese Type 91 aerial torpedoes,” “rapidly rolled over and sank to the bottom of the harbor,” according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.

He had been missing since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The IAGenWeb project has compiled coverage of Titterington in the news, including local, regional and national newspapers.

The Milford Mail reported on Christmas Day 1941 that Titterington was the “first young man from Milford to give his life for his country in the recently declared war with Japan.” His two younger brothers also joined the armed forces.

That same day, the Register reported that his mother, Pearl, had received a telegram from the War Department saying he was missing in action. The headline continued, “They gave everything for America.”

Titterington declared dead months after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Titterington was officially declared dead on February 1, 1942. The obituary, which appeared in the Spirit Lake Beacon on March 19, 1942, read:

“His greatest wish was that his brother Robert, also in the Navy, could reach the Hawaiian Islands so they could be together. Although Robert's ship passed by his brother's on November 2, 1941, he had no opportunity to see him before the devastating raid on December 7, 1941.”

He was also described as having a “cheerful disposition” and was popular with young and old alike.

“He was the good kid. You know how they always say in a sibling group, there's the crazy one and the motherly one, and I guess he was the well-behaved one… I heard stories like that when I was younger,” McKinnon said.

Titterington posthumously received a Purple Heart Medal, a Combat Action Ribbon, an American Defense Service Medal, an Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with Bronze Star, and a World War II Victory Medal.

Following the identification of his remains, distant family members of Titterington now have the opportunity

Family members who never knew their distant relatives will now gather at Titterington's funeral and find closure the family has not had since his disappearance.

“We have made contact with family members we didn’t know about,” McKinnon said.

Mary Titterington, a cousin of Everett Titterington, is now 90 years old. When his father died when he was young, Mary's family took in him, his mother, and his siblings.

McKinnon has been in contact with her great-uncle's cousin, her second cousin, since the discovery of Titterington's remains.

“We're just thrilled. You can hear it in her voice, even at 90,” McKinnon said. “I spoke to her on the phone for hours the other day and she was in tears. At one point I was in tears.”

Mary Titterington told McKinnon that she remembers walking to school the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor and hearing the grief in her father's voice. “She just said it destroyed the family,” McKinnon told the Register.

“I'm just so happy that my family has this, even the ones that are no longer here,” McKinnon said. “We have him back.”

Kyle Werner is a Reporter for the Register. Reach him at [email protected].

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Everett Titterington's family finds closure 82 years after Pearl Harbor

For decades, the Titterington family described him as “lost at Pearl Harbor”

What was Titterington doing in the Navy at Pearl Harbor?

Titterington declared dead months after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Following the identification of his remains, distant family members of Titterington now have the opportunity

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Everett Titterington's family finds closure 82 years after Pearl Harbor

For decades, the Titterington family described him as “lost at Pearl Harbor”

What was Titterington doing in the Navy at Pearl Harbor?

Titterington declared dead months after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Following the identification of his remains, distant family members of Titterington now have the opportunity

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