Project 888
Name: Nelson Page HILL Jr.
Rank / Rating: LT-LieutenantService #: 210174 DOB: Sep 21, 1915 From: Birmingham, AL Parents: Nelson Page Hill, Sr and Maye Lee Hill Went Aboard: February 1943 Age When Ship Went Down: 29 years, 10 months, 9 days Spouse: Olivia Dolly (Greagan) Hill Children: Maye Lee Hill Grandchildren: Bio Submitted By: Marilyn Northcutt Henry |
 HILL, Nelson P Jr. |
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Nelson Page Hill, Jr. was born in Birmingham, AL, Sept. 21, 1915, to Nelson Page Hill, Sr. age 21 and Maye Leigh Hill, 22. He was educated in Birmingham area private schools, McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1937 in Nashville, Tennessee.
With his degree in hand, Page became Vice President of H. G. Hill Grocery Company - a grocery store chain begun by his father and his uncle J. B. Hill still owned by family members in Alabama and Tennessee in 2025. Page married Olivia Dolly Greagan on October 4, 1939 in Birmingham, Alabama. Their daughter Maye Leigh Hill was born before Page volunteered for military service.
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| In August, 1942, Hill was assigned to the V-12 training program at Harvard University. At the age of 29 Lieutenant Hill transferred directly from Harvard in February 1943 to board USS Indianapolis CA 35 moored at Mare Island. Lt. Hill served for 30 months aboard Indianapolis participating in nine major battles for which Indy won ten battle stars. In December 1944 Lt. Commander Earl Henry and his wife Jane, met with Page and his wife Dolly at Mare Island at the Change of Command ceremony when Captain Charles McVay came aboard Indianapolis as Captain. Jane remembered their evening to be a very social, pleasant event talking about the Hill family and grocery business. No one mentioned the possibility of tragedy. Thursday, August 16, 1945 The Birmingham News, page 7, posted Nelson’s photo wearing his Navy Officer’s Uniform and reported “Lt. Hill, Veteran of Battles, Missing”. His biography followed listing family members, the delivery of the atomic bomb, and the sinking of Indianapolis killing hundreds of men. Below Lt. Hill’s photo and story appeared this news headline: From Hirohito’s Lips, Japan Told It was Quit or Perish “The Japanese people heard from the lips of Emperor Hirohito that Japan . . .had been compelled to surrender . . .to escape obliteration (by the atomic bomb) a new and most cruel weapon. . .” How painful this must have been for Nelson’s parents and wife. The timing could not have been more crueller. A later telegram would arrive informing Nelson’s family that all efforts to locate Nelson had failed, that he was presumed dead. His body was not recovered. Page was survived by his wife, Olivia (Dolly) Hill and their five-year-old daughter, Maye Leigh Hill. Sources: USS Indianapolis (CA-35), Turner Publishing, 1997, Paducah, Kentucky. Page 78. Newspapers.com, The Birmingham News, 16 Aug 1945, Thu, page 7. Conversation with Jane C. Henry, wife of Lt. Command Earl Henry, lost-at-sea, repeated by her son, Earl Henry Jr. to his wife, Marilyn N. Henry, December 2022. | |
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