Wilbur Clayton Barrett

Wilbur Clayton Barrett was born in El Dorado, April 9, 1915, to parents Maynard Rease Barrett and Nora Ellen (Parker) Barrett.  At age 25, in May 1940, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, citing his reason for enlisting as "to learn a trade."  He served in the Pacific on the USS Oklahoma as Seaman, 2nd class, until that ship was sunk by torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. He lost his life in that attack, and his unidentified remains were buried in a mass grave in Oahu, where his name appears on a memorial. At the time of his death, he was survived by his parents and his elder siblings Agnes Marie Hurlburt and Frank C. Barrett. In 2015 the Navy exhumed the commingled unidentified remains of 380 sailors and marines lost on the Oklahoma, to identify them using DNA analysis so they could be returned to their families. Full military graveside honors will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, September 14, 2019 at Sunset Lawns Cemetery, El Dorado, KS to inter his remains alongside his family.