Pearl Harbor veteran laid to rest — PHOTOS
May 29, 2015 - 7:27 pm
Willis Avery, one of the last of a few remaining local Pearl Harbor veterans, is remembered at a funeral service 10:40 a.m. Friday at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.
Avery, who died May 13 at 93, was a sailor on the hospital ship, the USS Solace, on Dec. 7, 1941. He scrambled to get the wounded into lifeboats before the USS Arizona sunk during the raid by Japanese warplanes on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
He is survived by son, Bill Avery of Boulder City, and daughter, Sandra Sanders, of El Dorado Hills, Calif. He also leaves four grandsons and and two great granddaughters.
Ed Hall, an Army veteran and survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack is expected to attend.
A special touch at the service will be the performance of echo taps by Larry Ransom and the Trumpeters Alliance to Perform Patriotic Services, a nonprofit group that performs at some military funerals at no cost to the family.