A quiet country boy from North Carolina with a strong singing voice heard a different sound on December 7, 1941.

Ralph William Thompson was born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on April 21, 1917, to Frank and Christine Thompson. Two sisters rounded out the family. Christine had moved to Santa Cruz with Ralph and her two daughters; Frank remained in North Carolina. She settled the family into a residence on Berkshire Street and enrolled
Ralph in Mission Hills Junior High School. In 1932 Ralph entered Santa Cruz High School and took a general varied course but his special interest was the choir. After graduat- ing from high school in 1936, Ralph worked as a landscape gardener in Redwood City,
California.

In December 1940 Thompson joined the US Navy and entered boot camp in San Diego. Throughout 1941 he attended additional navy schools and served as a Fireman Third Class. In October he received orders to report aboard the USS Helena berthed at Pearl Harbor.

When the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941, Ralph was seriously wounded and hospitalized. He died on December 11 and is buried at the US National Cemetery in Hawaii.

(ABMC; SCR [month/date missing]/1942; SCHSC, Pg. 19; SCSn
May 5, 1942 2:6)