After 81 years, this Pearl Harbor Navy veteran with Coast ties is coming home

After more than 80 years of waiting, the remains of a Navy veteran who was killed in action at Pearl Harbor will be returned to his family.

His name was Houston Temples, and at the time of his death he was serving his country on the U.S.S. Oklahoma.

Houston’s family hails from Louisiana, but many of his living relatives now reside in Lumberton, Hurley, and Picayune, Mississippi. His numerous South Mississippi nieces and nephews have helped arrange his service in tandem with the American Legion.

His memory will be honored on Dec. 7 in a memorial service at American Legion Hall, exactly 81 years after the surprise military strike on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, that claimed the lives of 2,000 Navy men and hundreds more.

Houston’s service is open to the public and will take place at 63349 Highway 10 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. It will begin with visitation starting at noon.

“It’s happening on Pearl Harbor Day,” said Shirley Temples Hayman, one of Houston’s nieces who lives in Texas. “It’s going to be at the American Legion Hall in Bogalusa. It will start with visitation from 12-1 p.m. and the service will begin at 1 p.m. Then we leave the American Legion Hall at 1:45 and will drive up the street to the cemetery.”

Graveside services with full military honors for Houston will begin at 2 p.m. at Ponemah Cemetery.

“The members of the American Legion have been highly involved and very active in this,” said Karla Temples Kendrick, another one of Houston’s nieces from Picayune. “They’re considering it a great honor over there for this event and they have some things that they are doing on their own to honor him for his service when he returns.”

Houston’s remains will be flown into New Orleans and then transported to Poole-Ritchie Funeral Home in Bogalusa.

“We’re just touched in our hearts that for such a time as this, we will get to have him back home…” Hayman said. “His body will be once again put to rest, and he’ll be home.”

Who was Houston Temples?

Houston Temples was born in Varnado, Louisiana, on Sept. 27, 1917, as the third child of Thomas T. “Tommie” Temples and Dixie Rovila Sheridan Temples. He was one of 11 children. His siblings were Rue Jay, Robert, Hubert, Seamon, Bessie, Beckie, Shelton, Melvin, Fannie, and Baby Girl Temples who died at a young age.

Houston was 22 years old when he traveled to New Orleans to join the Navy in mid-1940. He was moved to San Diego, California, for naval training before being assigned to the U.S.S. Oklahoma, a battle ship manned by 2,166 sailors and marines.

Houston’s ship was among the first to be attacked at Pearl Harbor. By the end it was hit by nine torpedoes, and 429 of the men aboard the ship sank into their watery graves.

The Department of the Navy buried sailors’ remains in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries from December 1941 to June 1944. In September of 1947, the remains were disinterred by the American Graves Registration Service for purposes of recovery and identification. Remains that continued to be unidentified were re-buried in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. This cemetery is commonly known as “The Punchbowl” because of its location in the Punchbowl Crater.

With his remains still not recovered, Houston was memorialized in 1966 on the Tablets of the Missing and awarded the Purple Heart, which his mother kept close until her death in 1974.

Shelton Temples and his children donated their DNA in hopes of recovering Houston’s remains in the early 2000s. After Shelton’s death, his children and nephew donated DNA again. Then, in July 2015, the deputy secretary of defense ordered the disinterment of the rest of the unidentified soldiers. After years of waiting, Houston’s body was identified on April 16, 2022.

Honoring Houston’s memory

Houston is survived by many nieces and nephews. Though they never had a chance to meet their uncle, they have learned about him posthumously. Honoring Houston’s memory is a link that has connected members of the family, according to Karla Temples Kendrick.

“He is someone to my siblings and I, and a lot of our cousins, that is very special to us even though we never knew him,” Kendrick said. “We feel like we do. We’ve tried to learn about him, his personality, different things from an older generation that did know him back in his young days.”

Kendrick shared that from what she has learned Houston was an outgoing and friendly person who loved life and enjoyed his time serving in the military.

Though she is grateful that Houston is coming home after all these years, the event is bittersweet for Kendrick.

“All of (Houston’s) siblings have waited for this moment, for this day. This is always something that they wanted to hear, that he was coming home. I’ve heard my dad many, many times make his phone calls. I’ve heard him trying to get updates. I just wish I could share this with him.”

Though he was only 8 years old when his big brother was declared missing, and then deceased, Kendrick says her father Shelton Temples remembered Houston distinctly. He passed away on Dec. 6, 2009, more than a decade before his brother would be brought home.

“It was certainly something that I wish I could share with (my dad), and all of (Houston’s) siblings, because they waited a long, long time for that day to have the brother home that never made it home.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2022 at 10:37 AM.