William Elmer Greenwell was born on 13 June 1904, to James Oscar Greenwell and Mary Jettie Mattingly. He married Bertha Ellen Crockett on 26 November 1941.
Chief Machinists Mate Greenwell served on the U.S.S. Colorado. He was taken to the Naval Base Hospital for disposition on 10 Sepember 1943. He died at sea beyond continuing limits of the US due to chronic nephritis.
Buried at Etowah City Cemetery, Etowah, TN.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 25 September 1943
Mrs. Bertha Crockett Greenwell received a message from the War Department stating that her husband, Petty Officer William Elmer Greenwell, died Sept. 10 at a base hospital somewhere in the South Pacific. Petty Officer Greenwell had been ill for some time. He had been in the service 18 years, being in foreign service generally. He was at home on leave at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and returned to duty the next day. Since that time ha has been in service in the South Pacific. On Nov. 26, 1941, he was married to Miss Bertha Crockett of Etowah., who is English and history teacher in Englewood High School. Other survivors are his stepmother, Mrs. J.O. Greenwell, and one brother, Raymond, both of St. Francis, Ky.
Daily Post-Athenian, October 7, 1943
Mrs. W.E. Greenwell of Etowah, who recently received notice from the War Department of the death of her husband, Chief Petty Officer Greenwell, at a government hospital September 10, received a letter this week from Chief Petty Officers of the ship on which her husband was stationed before he left for the hospital. The name of the ship was not divulged. Mr. Greenwell had been in the United States Navy for eighteen years. In recent months he had not been well and left the ship for a check up. In one of his last letters to his wife, he expressed the belief that he would soon be home. Mrs. Greenwell, the former Miss Bertha Crockett of Etowah, was married to Mr. Greenwell in November 1941. They were on their honeymoon, only two weeks after the wedding, when he was called back for duty following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That is the last time he was home. He was a native of Etowah.
The letter is as follows;
“Dear Mrs. Greenwell. It is with the deepest sympathy that we, the Chief Petty Officers of your husband’s ship, write these few lines at this time, the time of your great sorrow. Having for the past two years been very close associates of your husband, the word of his sudden passing was indeed a shock to us all. At the time of his leaving the ship, he was in the best of spirits, he was on his way home, laughing and joking with us that he could tell of his many experiences of war before we. It is our regret that you were not able to hear them revealed. We have lost a fine shipmate, a man of highest standing in the eyes of all that have served with him; an expert in his profession. As a toke of remembrance, please feel free to call on any of us at any time as we stand ready to serve you.
Faithfully Yours
Signed – Chief Petty Officers, the names not being released for publication.
- Rank: Chief Machinists Mate
- Date of birth: 13 June 1904
- Date of death: 10 September 1943
- County: McMinn
- Hometown: Copperhill
- Service Branch: Navy
- Division/Assignment: USS Colorado
- Theater: South Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Etowah City Cemetery, Etowah, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XV, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor W. Elmer Greenwell
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