From Wikipedia.
JULIUS ELLSBERRY (August22, 1921-December 7, 1941)
He was the first Alabamian killed in World War II. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Parker High School in 1938.
Enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was serving on the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) when the attack came. He and 413 other crewmen died.
The Birmingham World called him the "Crispus Attucks of World War II."
Birmingham's black community raised over $300,000 in war bond purchases towards the completion of a B-24 Liberator named "The Spirit of Ellsberry."
His body was returned to his family in September 1948 and was laid to rest with full military honors at New Grove Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
Birmingham's Ellsberry Park was dedicated in his honor in 1979.
A marker to him is also in Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham. The park is named for fellow Navy sailor and Birmingham resident Kelly Ingram, the first American killed in World War I when his ship the destroyer USS Cassin was sunk by a German U-boat on October 15, 1917.
--GreGen
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