Submitted by Tom James. Additional information provided by Juliet Margarite Rose Serrato.
Monument on the courthouse lawn, Moundsville, West Virginia.
James Lloyd Rose is buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Wheeling, West Virginia.
James Lloyd Rose, 27, born 1914 in Benwood, Marshall Co., W. Va., died on May 4, 1942 aboard the S.S. Delisle, a maritime cargo vessel positioned off the coast of Florida. He was the first Marshall County man to meet death at the service of his country during WWII.
According to reports, an Italian submarine sitting off the east coast of Florida was the aggressor and torpedoed the ship on which Rose served in the positions of fireman and water tender.
The remains of Rose and a fellow shipmate were discovered in the hull of the boat. Rose was transported to Wheeling for funeral services with interment at Mount Calvary Cemetery.
On May 26, 2016, Juliet Margarite Rose Serrato, a grand niece of James Lloyd Rose, wrote: "...I was named after his mother and she had a stroke when she found out her son had perished. My grandfather Richard Rose went down to Florida to retrieve and identify his brother's body. - I went to Washington DC to the National Archives in 2011 before they moved the documents and looked at my Great Uncle James' record. It was indeed the infamous German Nazi Reinhard "Teddy" Suhren in U-564 that fired the torpedo that killed my Great Uncle and one other man off Jupiter Inlet. The SS Delisle did not sink that time and was towed into Florida where the Coroner reported that my Great Uncle James died from drowning in Oil and Sea Water. His body was covered in oil and my grandfather was only able to positively identify his brother because of a missing finger that he had from an old accident on the Rose Farm years before."
In September 1942 a marble plaque was dedicated to the memory of James Lloyd Rose at the Marshall County Courthouse. Mrs. Margarite (Andy) Rose and her family attended the dedication under the direction of Judge Lloyd Arnold with the Rev. J. H. Carson offering the invocation. The members of the Civilian Defense Post #3 conceived the marker. Its dedication was an important aspect of the Memorial Day celebrations that commenced with a colorful street parade through Moundsville to the Courthouse where patriotic songs were sung.
The Mariner's Medal was presented to Seaman Roses' mother, Margarite, on behalf of Congress and through the direction of Admiral Emery S. Land.
Obituary provided by Linda Fluharty.