Pearl Harbor sailor’s remains going to Rogersville

Pearl Harbor casualty Seaman 2nd Class Cecil Howard Thornton is finally coming home to Rogersville.

Thornton was 21 when he died on the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. His remains were identified in March 2019. The Navy will bury him with full military honors March 11 at 10 a.m. at Civitan Cemetery in his Rogersville hometown.

“My Uncle Howard. I’m 70 years old. He’s been dead 82 years, I never had a chance to meet him,” John Belue, his nephew, said. Belue, who resides in Anderson, worked at Thiokol Chemical Corp. at Redstone until January 1980.

“He was my uncle. He was my mother’s only sibling. It was the beginning of the end of a very small family. It was terrible,” Belue said.

Belue’s mother, Christine Olivia Thornton, was six years younger. Thornton quit school in the 10th grade and went to work in the cotton fields. He joined the Navy in December 1939 in Birmingham. “Went in to serve his country and have a career,” Belue said.

Two years later, Thornton was killed in the attack that propelled the United States into World War II.

“I’m just proud to get him home,” Belue said. “And we couldn’t bury him by his mother and by his daddy, but we’ve got him buried near some cousins.”

Belue’s sister, Cathy Belue, 72, of Huntsville, worked at Redstone Arsenal in the 1970s.

Thornton, the oldest of two children of Maloy and Lilly Thornton of Rogersville, had a fiancee. “We’re finally going to get him home,” Belue said.

Jere Hudson, 84, of Huntsville, is the last remaining first cousin. Hudson worked as an engineer in the unmanned aerial vehicles project office at Redstone until he retired in 1995 after 25 years of service.

Hudson’s father, Sam Hudson, was Lilly Thornton’s brother.

Hudson, who was 2 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, said he will try to attend Thornton’s burial.

“I’m real pleased that they’re finally bringing him home,” he said.