Name: Garrison CAMP
Rank / Rating: STM2-Steward's Mate Second Class
Service #: 970 81 33
DOB: Feb 07, 1917
From: Blacksburg, SC
Parents: William (a farmer) and Pearl Ophelia Littlejohn Camp
Went Aboard: Jun 23, 1945
Age When Ship Went Down: 28 years, 5 months, 23 days
Spouse: Oveda Young Camp
Children: Horace Eugene, Annie Pearl, Ruby Jo
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Jane Gwinn Goodall
Date Posted:

(Frank) Garrison Camp was born in Blacksburg, Cherokee County, in upstate South Carolina on 7 February 1917. Blacksburg is a small rural town located just four miles south of the border of North Carolina. Camp was the fourth child, and first-born son of William (a farmer) and Pearl Ophelia Littlejohn Camp. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Garrison Littlejohn.

The couple had ten children. There was a 19-year age difference between the eldest and the youngest. Garrison Camp had four younger brothers (Fred, Luther, William, and Roland) and five sisters (Minnie, Daisy, Addie, Christine, and Angeline). As a young child, he was known by his first name of Frank, and was listed in the 1920 U.S. Census as Frank G. Camp. However, by the time of the 1930 Census, he was listed as Garrison. The name Garrison stuck with him, and he registered for the military under Garrison Camp in 1940. His draft card is dated 2 November 1940. He was 23 years old when he filed it across state lines in Shelby, Cleveland County, North Carolina, just 15.5 miles from his hometown. Five years later, he joined the crew of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) at Mare Island as a Steward’s Mate Second Class. He arrived on the same day (23 June 1945) as another Steward’s Mate shipmate, Clarence King. Both men had enlisted in North Carolina and were sent to U.S. Naval Training and Distribution Center at Camp Shoemaker in Dublin, California before joining Indy’s sailing crew, just 5 weeks before her final mission and fatal sinking. He was 28 years old and married to Oveda Young Camp at the time of his death. According to the 1950 Federal Census, when Oveda became a widow, she had three children, including Horace Eugene Camp (7 years old), Annie Pearl Camp (6 years old), and Ruby Jo Camp (3 years old). Oveda passed away in 1964 at the age of 44. Daughter Ruby Jo married and became Ruby Jo Corry. She passed away in Kings Mountain, North Carolina on 23 October 1995 at the age of 54.