Harold Bernard Evans

Details of Harold’s youth are scarce. The records only show that he was born on March 19, 1907 in Courtland, Virginia, about ten miles north of the North Carolina state line, and was raised by his foster parents.

They were Robert and Ida Conner, who apparently moved to Philadelphia at some point. They most likely came as part of the Great Migration, when African Americans travelled to cities in the north to find a better life and escape racial violence due to “Jim Crow” laws enacted by southern states. The next confirmed document is a 1930 census showing him on his own, living as a lodger and working as a construction worker. 

As America inched closer to engaging in another world war, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was signed into law. It was the first peacetime conscription in U.S. history and required all men between the ages of 21 and 35 to register. Harold did so on October 16 since he was 33 years old. Coincidentally, his employer was the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot, an Army facility that made clothing, flags, and other supplies for the military. 

He listed his foster mother as his contact person, living at 1744 North 20th Street. But about a year later Harold married Katherine Ann Fletcher, and they made their home just a few blocks north.

Harold chose to enlist in the Navy on November 24, 1943 and entered the service a week later. He was first stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, then at Newport, Rhode Island before coming back to Philadelphia. On April 16, 1944 he was received on board a ship on the day it was commissioned. It was the battleship USS Wisconsin, which happened to be built at the Philadelphia Navy yard.

Unfortunately, he contracted a particular type of tuberculosis known as “miliary” TB. By the time he was admitted to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital it had already spread, infecting the lungs, kidneys, and meninges, which are the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. He died on June 12, less than 30 days after being admitted.

His wife applied for the military headstone pictured above. It shows his rating in the Naval Reserves as Steward’s Mate, 3rd Class. It was formerly known as “mess attendant” and the Steward branch of the Navy was almost exclusively made up of African Americans and other minorities. He was buried on June 16 in the Naval Plot on the Yeadon side of Mount Moriah.