Parkville will honor Pearl Harbor veteran On Wednesday, Oct. 10 10.3.18
On Oct. 10 at 10:15 a.m., Parkville residents are asked to line the sidewalks on First Street outside Stone Canyon and Edward Jones to honor Harold Lloyd Head as his remains are carried by motorcade from Parkville, MO to his final resting place in Laclede, Mo. Flags will be provided by the American Legion Post 318.
Who is Harold Lloyd Head?
On Dec. 7, 1941 the battleship USS Oklahoma was moored at berth, outboard of the USS Maryland, at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when attacked by Japanese forces. The USS Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits, causing it to capsize. 429 sailors and Marines were lost, including Missouri native, Seaman Second Class Harold Lloyd Head, United States Navy.
In the days, months and years following the attack, remains of men lost aboard the USS Oklahoma were recovered. Ultimately, 35 were identified, and the unidentified remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific as “Unknowns.”
In 2003, a single casket associated with the USS Oklahoma incident was disinterred from the National Memorial Cemetery. Permission to exhume the remainder of the graves was granted on April 14, 2015. From June 2015 through November 2015, United States Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials exhumed all remaining caskets and transferred them to DPAA laboratories located at Joint Base Pearl Harbor- Hickman, Hawaii, and Offutt AFB, Nebraska.
On Sept. 26, 2017 the DPAA released the Medical Examiner Summary Report, and confirmed through DNA testing that the remains of Seaman Second Class (S2c) Harold Lloyd Head were recovered and identified.
Harold Lloyd Head was born Oct. 10, 1921 in Browning, Mo. to Noel Price Head and Goldia (Myers) Head. He graduated from Laclede High School, Laclede, Missouri in 1940 and joined the United States Navy that same year. His parents and three sisters are also deceased. Survivors include nephews, nieces and extended family members.
On Oct. 10, 2018, exactly 97 years to the day following the birth of Harold Lloyd Head, a formal funeral procession will leave from the Meyers Northland Chapel in Parkville at 10:30 a.m. to arrive at the Laclede Cemetery in Laclede, Missouri at 1 p.m., where Mr. Head will be laid-to-rest.
Full military honors will be conducted under the auspices of the United States Navy.
In accordance with the families wishes and the assistance of the United States Navy Mortuary Affairs Office, the Meyers Northland Chapel in Parkville has been entrusted with the final arrangements. Family members, friends of the family, fellow comrades and any fellow Americans are encouraged to leave special remarks and words of comfort by visiting Mr. Head’s obituary page
