Name: Clarence KING Jr.
Rank / Rating: STM2-Steward
Service #: 970 81 32
DOB: March 26, 1926
From: Iredell County, NC
Parents: Clarence and Annie Lou Simonton Moore King
Went Aboard: Jun 23, 1945
Age When Ship Went Down: 19 years, 4 months, 4 days
Spouse:
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Admin
Date Posted:

Clarence King, Jr. was the third born child of Clarence and Annie Lou Simonton Moore King, in Iredell County, North Carolina on 26 March 1926. Clarence and Annie were married in Iredell County, North Carolina in 1914. He had two older siblings: brother Andrew (12 Aug 1923 - 13 May 1973), and sister Beatrice (born 1924). Prior to the children’s births, Clarence Sr. worked as a driver for Miller & Younger, in Statesville, NC.

In the 1920 Census the family had moved to a home on Boulevard Rd. in Statesville where Clarence Sr. worked as a laborer at the brickyard. His wife, Annie Lou King, was born in Iredell on June 12, 1894, and died at the age of 35 on March 15, 1929, in Iredell. At the time of her death, young Clarence King, Jr. was eleven days shy of his 3rd birthday. His mother is buried in the Statesville City Colored Cemetery. His father must have died shortly thereafter. By the time of the 1930 Census, Clarence King Jr. was an orphan and is listed as 4 years old and living in Statesville with his Uncle Albert Bilton King (57) and Aunt Hattie Claybrook King (45). Living in the household were Albert and Hattie’s children, Virginia (11) and Dorothea (3), as well as Clarence’s brother Andrew (8) and sister Beatrice (6). Sadly, Clarence’s aunt Hattie King died on 28 July 1935 and his uncle Albert died on 23 April 1938. After their deaths, the children were sent to the Oxford Colored Orphanage in Fishing Creek, Granville County, North Carolina, where Clarence (13), and Beatrice (15) were living in the 1940 Federal Census. By the time Clarence King, Jr. registered for the draft at 18 years of age on 17 April 1944, he was back in Statesville, North Carolina, and working for an agricultural equipment maker, Turner Manufacturing Company. His draft card shows a conflicting birthdate of 15 April 1926. Clarence King, Jr. listed his cousin Doretha (sic) Dalton as his contact person. A newspaper article in the Statesville Record and Landmark newspaper listed Clarence King, Jr. among the thirty “colored men” sent to pre-induction exercises at Camp Croft, South Carolina on 30 August 1944. He boarded USS Indianapolis (CA-35) on 23 June 1945 (on the same day as his shipmate Garrison Camp) from Shoemaker Naval Training and Distribution Center, Dublin (near San Francisco), California. It was just three weeks prior to the ship’s last mission. He served as Steward’s Mate Second Class on the final sailing crew. Clarence King, Jr.’s name appears on the Davie County, North Carolina war monument in the town square of Mocksville, North Carolina. Local historians could not find a photo or relationship to Davie County since all the information found on King links him to another county, Iredell. Alongside his name is the name of his brother, Andrew King, who is listed as being from Mocksville. His brother Andrew passed away in Raleigh, North Carolina on 13 May 1973. He is buried in Carolina Biblical Gardens. Clarence was just 19 years old when Indy was torpedoed and sunk. Brother, Andrew King of Mocksville, North Carolina was notified of his death. Local researchers surmise that his brother’s residence is the reason that, Clarence King, Jr.’s name was placed on the memorial statue in Mocksville instead of Iredell County. In October 2024, a ceremony was held in Statesville, NC for Clarence King. Coordinated efforts between the local American Legion Post 65, civic leaders, and Joel Reese, local history librarian and historian at the Iredell County Public Library helped to “bring Clarence King’s name home to Statesville. The city issued a proclamation declaring Clarence King Jr. Day in Statesville, remembering his sacrifice as they unveiled his engraved name on the World War II Memorial in front of the Iredell County Hall of Justice.

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CLARENCE KING DAY IREDELL COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA OCTOBER 2024 INTRO FOR AND SPEECH BY JOEL REESE, AT DEDICATION Our next speaker is Joel Reese the Local History Librarian at the Iredell County Public Library. Joel began efforts to get the name Clarence King Jr. added to the Iredell County’s World War II monument with a record he published in the Statesville Record and Landmark on Aug. 10, 2014, titled, “Mystery Surrounds WWII Veteran.” Joel is going to provide a little background on how we come to be here today. “Good afternoon. I want to thank you all for being here. The story of how we came to be here today beings on Nov. 11, 1987 when Davie County dedicated the Davie County War Memorial to those who died in serving their country. One of the names on that monument was Clarence King Jr. Twenty-five years later Marie Benge Craig Roth who works in the Local History Department at the Davie County Public Library published a book titled, Davie County Veteran’s Memorial” in which she discussed the history of the monument and gave information on the men whose names were on the monument. She was unable to find any information on one of the names on the monument, but she did find a document that linked this deceased sailor with Statesville. She called me at the Iredell County Public Library to see if I could help learn who this man was. In my research I learned that the sailor’s name was Steward’s Mate Second Class Clarence King Jr., who was born March 26, 1926, in Statesville to Clarence and Annie Lou Simonton Moore King. In the 1920 Census they are living in Statesville on Boulevard Rd. By 1929 both of Clarence’s parents have died and are buried in the Green Street Cemetery in Statesville. Clarence and his brother Andrew and sister Beatrice are living with their uncle and aunt Albert and Hattie King in the 1930 Statesville census, but they also die over the next few years and in 1940 Clarence, Andrew and Beatrice are living in the Oxford Colored Orphanage in Granville County, N.C. Once old enough to leave the orphanage Clarence returns to Statesville and works at the Turner Manufacturing Company while his brother Andrew takes a job in Mocksville. Clarence registers for the draft on April 17, 1944, and is sent to Camp Croft, South Carolina on Aug. 30, 1944. On June 23, 1945, Steward’s Mate Second Class Clarence King Jr., now 19 years old, boards the USS Indianapolis, a Portland Class heavy cruiser in port near San Francisco, California for repairs after being hit by a bomb dropped by a Japanese kamikaze fighter at Okinawa in the Pacific. After being repaired the ship’s crane brought on board a wooden crate, five feet high, five feet wide and fifteen feet long. A knee-high black metal canister about knee high containing uranium-235 was also brought on board hanging from a metal pole carried by marine guards. Clarence and his fellow sailors had no idea what was in the containers, as they sat in port awaiting orders. On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 a.m. in a New Mexico desert the history of humanity changed forever as the world’s first nuclear bomb was detonated. No one knew for sure that morning if the bomb would actually explode. Some feared that one nuclear explosion might set off a chain reaction of nuclear explosions that could destroy the world. News of the success of the test was immediately sent to President Harry S. Truman who in turn sent orders to the USS Indianapolis. Due to secrecy the orders were taken on a motor launch and hand delivered to Capt. Charles B. McVay, III. They were to protect their cargo at all costs and to proceed at top speed. In speaking to his officers Capt. McVay said, “every hour we save will shorten the war by that much.” Clarence and his fellow sailors didn’t know it as they left port, but they were carrying the integral components of the atom bomb which would become known as “Little Boy.” The Indianapolis set a new speed record of 74 1/2 hours in reaching Pearl Harbor from San Francisco and then sailed on to deliver their cargo to the U.S. base on Tinian Island on July 29th. After delivering their cargo the Indianapolis set sail unescorted and under radio silence. At 12:15 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was hit by two torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-58. The ship went down in 12 minutes carrying 1,195 crewmen. An estimated 300 men went down with the ship. For the next four days the survivors floated in the water until at 11:25 on Aug. 2nd, Lieutenant Wilbur Charles (Chuck) Gwinn flying a PV-1 Ventura spotted the men in the water on a routine patrol flight. They immediately dropped a life raft and radio transmitter. Of the nearly 900 men that were able to abandon ship, only 316 men survived. It remains the greatest single loss of life at sea in US Naval history. The men that died on Indianapolis never knew the importance of their mission. On Aug. 6, 1945, the first military use of an atomic bomb was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima after being dropped from a B-29 named the Enola Gay by bombardier Thomas Ferebee, himself a native of Davie County. Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, sixteen days after Statesville’s Clarence King and his ship were torpedoed and sunk. The Indianapolis was the last major warship sunk during World War II and some have called her delivery of the atomic bomb as the most important single mission in U.S. Naval history. Clarence’s body was never recovered. The Stewards quarters were directly above the ammunition stores where one of the torpedoes hit. If he was not on duty for the midnight ship, he likely would have gone down with the ship. He has been missing for nearly 80 years. We are gathered here today to bring him back home to Statesville.