Sailor killed at Pearl Harbor to be buried in Barren County

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Andy Beshear recognized Friday the sacrifice of a Park City, Kentucky sailor who lost his life during Pearl Harbor.

The remains of the sailor were not identified until 2021. Navy Seaman 1st Class Elmer P. Lawrence of Park City, Kentucky, died on Dec. 7, 1941.

“We are saddened to acknowledge the death of another young Kentuckian who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor,” Beshear said. “But we are gratified that modern science and military determination has, against all odds, found him and will bring him home.”

Lawrence was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft, the governor’s office says. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Lawrence.

Over the next several years, Navy personnel recovered remains of the crew. Eventually, the unidentified remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

It wasn’t until October 1949 that a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Lawrence.

In 2015, the governor’s office says the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency personnel exhumed the unidentified remains for analysis. Scientists used dental, anthropological and DNA analysis.

Lawrence’s name has been recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Funeral services for Lawrence will be held at Shiloh General Baptist Church in Railton, Kentucky on July 22, with burial immediately following at Shiloh Cemetery.