JOHN L. EVERETT, JR., LT, USNR
John Everett, Jr. '32
Lucky Bag
From the 1932 Lucky Bag:
JOHN LEAK EVERETT, JR.
Rockingham, North Carolina
"John L."
"And Marse Jim beat that [n------] [edited by VMH] 'til he was daid." Thus our first introduction to the rebel-born, mammy-reared, and plantation-bred John L. The story is of no importance—but he's got all the ideas in his head that the quotation implies, such as Legree-esque overseers and rolling fields of cotton and pickaninnies playing around the barns and the coach rolling up to the door with the "marstuh back from the woe." Our John is a real Southern gentleman.
But he's a tea houn'. Doggone his soul, he is. With his other Tarheel companions in crime, he makes the rounds of the Annapolitan parlors of a Sunday afternoon. Thus has he earned himself entree into all the back parlors and salons which, to the common chaff standing on the outside looking in, have assumed the proportions of a mystic shrine.
He dabbles here and there in athletics. His chief claim to fame is as a swimmer, but he has, at various times, touched lightly, as becomes a Southerner, football, lacrosse, water polo, and the faintest suggestion of soccer.
Swimming; 2 P.O.
JOHN LEAK EVERETT, JR.
Rockingham, North Carolina
"John L."
"And Marse Jim beat that [n------] [edited by VMH] 'til he was daid." Thus our first introduction to the rebel-born, mammy-reared, and plantation-bred John L. The story is of no importance—but he's got all the ideas in his head that the quotation implies, such as Legree-esque overseers and rolling fields of cotton and pickaninnies playing around the barns and the coach rolling up to the door with the "marstuh back from the woe." Our John is a real Southern gentleman.
But he's a tea houn'. Doggone his soul, he is. With his other Tarheel companions in crime, he makes the rounds of the Annapolitan parlors of a Sunday afternoon. Thus has he earned himself entree into all the back parlors and salons which, to the common chaff standing on the outside looking in, have assumed the proportions of a mystic shrine.
He dabbles here and there in athletics. His chief claim to fame is as a swimmer, but he has, at various times, touched lightly, as becomes a Southerner, football, lacrosse, water polo, and the faintest suggestion of soccer.
Swimming; 2 P.O.
Loss
John was lost when USS Argonaut (APS 1) was sunk by a Japanese surface forces near Rabaul on January 10, 1943.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
John graduated in 1927 from Central High School, Charlotte, North Carolina. Class Will: John leaves his ability to get a new girl every week. Senior Prophecy: John and a classmate, well-known multi-millionaires, have been spending their nights as “summer bachelors” – such is the report from their respective clubs.
In September 1931, John attended the eleventh annual debutante events in Raleigh as the escort of Miss Sarah Tucker Williamson. They were married on June 4, 1932, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte. John was attended by his classmates. Ensign G. W. Pressey was his best man. Groomsmen were Ensigns A. J. Tucker, N. B. Rhoads, L. B. Halsey, C. E. Perkins, A. G. Ward, and Salem Van Every, Jr.
John, his father and S. Clifford Johnson were stock subscribers in the Grenaco Knitting Mills, Inc., of Rockingham. It was a yarn mill and manufactured textile fabrics from wool and cotton.
On November 20, 1935, John’s son, John III, was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina. His daughter, born two years later, was named Sally Tucker Everett.
From The News and Observer, Raleigh, January 16, 1936: Rockingham, Jan. 15. – Fifty knitting machines have been installed in the John Everett, Jr., new knitting department at Everett’s mill 11 miles south of Rockingham. Twenty operatives are employed. In time, it is planned to expand to a larger building and new machines to be added. Men’s better grade socks are being woven, and then sent to Burlington to a finishing and dyeing plant.
On October 9, 1938, John received minor injuries when his car hit a projecting sprinkler on the highway between Cheraw and Bennettsville, North Carolina.
On April 27, 1939, John was a naval reserve officer who was promoted by the Navy department from lieutenant, junior grade, to lieutenant.
In March, 1940, John volunteered to rejoin the Navy and especially asked for submarine duty. Before being assigned to the Argonaut, John was aboard another Navy submarine which was damaged in a Wake Island engagement.
John and Sarah divorced, and she married Thomas Lamb in September, 1942. John’s second wife was Marian M. of San Francisco.
John’s mother was Elizabeth, and his five sisters were Sarah, Elizabeth, Frances, Martha and Terrell.
From The Charlotte Observer, June 28, 1931 [John’s father]:
John L. Everett Recalls How Senator Landed with Right Swing to Fell Bully Who Heckled Prohibition Meeting.
… Senator Cameron Morrison’s real debut as a fighting prohibitionist dates back some 30 years.
It all happened down in Wolf Pit township, Richmond county, soon after the present senator left the cotton patch for the legal profession. A fellow was about to put up a government distillery in the lower end of the township near the South Carolina line.
The neighbors were indignant and called a meeting to be held at Everett’s store, near the site of the proposed distillery…
Morrison read a statute passed by the North Carolina legislature applicable to the border counties providing that a distillery could not be maintained in this state across the line from a church in South Carolina …
Just at that point, the owner of the place on which the still was to be erected stepped up close to the platform and called Morrison a liar.
Morrison took a right swing at him and knocked him down. Whereupon, a free for all fight ensued.
That, Mr. Everett recalled, was the last of the liquor stills in Wolf Pit township.
He is listed at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. (This Find A Grave entry has many photographs, but none have captions and it's unclear if John is actually in any of them.) His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by his son and daughter, his parents, and three sisters.
Photographs
From the Hi-Y page his high school yearbook
From his high school yearbook
From the Dramatic Club page of his high school yearbook
From The News and Observer on March 6, 1943
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
October 1932
January 1933
April 1933
July 1933
October 1933
November 1940
April 1941
Memorial Hall Error
John's memory marker, the September 1946 issue of Shipmate, the June 1943 All Hands Bulletin, and all other records identify him as a LT, USNR; he is listed as "LCDR, USN" in Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
