On April 3, 2024, Lou Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, passed away. With him goes 102 years of history and an eighty-year legacy of ensuring that his comrades were never forgotten.
Conter was a twenty-year-old naval quartermaster stationed on the USS Arizona when the ship was attacked on December 7, 1941. A bomb dropped from a Japanese plane landed on the deck of the Arizona, setting off the interior powder magazine containing almost a million pounds of ammunition. The explosion split the ship in half and sank beneath Pearl Harbor in a matter of minutes. Quartermaster Conter made it to safety, only to go back and attempt rescue his comrades. He was ordered to pull survivors out of the oil-soaked water as flames roared around his boat. Many men were burned beyond recognition and Conter was ordered to incapacitate those who tried to get out and swim. Of the 1,177 crewmen who perished aboard the Arizona, over 900 bodies were never recovered and were left to rest with the ship. From 1982 until 2019 when survivor Lauren Bruner died, the U.S. Navy would inter survivors with the ship if they wished.
Conter would go to pilot school and fly several missions in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Thereafter, he served in Korea, trained Navy pilots on how to survive if they were shot down behind enemy lines, and retired from the Navy after twenty-seven years. He was instrumental in keeping the memory of the Arizona and Pearl Harbor alive and attended memorial events until he was unable to.
Being the “last leaf on the tree” comes with many honors and burdens. You are instrumental in ensuring that a time in history is never forgotten, while watching the people who bore the trial with you pass on. You are a connection to the past that is often tragic and many of your equals would be happy to forget. You are the face of all of the people who did not survive the ordeal and weren’t able to tell their stories. You are viewed as a hero, when many servicemen admit that “the heroes don’t make it home.”
Becoming the last person tied to a historic event is also dependent on the willingness to share your story. Helen Jackson, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on December 16, 2020 after keeping her marriage a secret for almost 80 years. 93-year-old Union Veteran James Bolin proposed marriage to 17-year-old Jackson as a kindness to her for helping him with housekeeping, believing that she could collect his pension upon his death (around $70 a month during the Great Depression). James Bolin passed in 1939 and Jackson never remarried and never attempted to collect his pension, preferring to live in silence until she passed. How many people will carry their story to the grave because they don’t want to dig up that part of their past.
Below is a non-inclusive list of “last leaves” that I expect to see in my lifetime
Last World War II veteran-we aren’t very far from this one
Last “Rosie the Riveter”-the ladies who comprised the backbone of our nation during World War II are finally getting some recognition
Last Korea War veteran-a generation of veterans that are mostly forgotten now because the war wasn’t as “glorious” as World War II and not as controversial as Vietnam
Last Vietnam veteran-the veterans who didn’t receive a welcome from their country when they returned
Last Holocaust survivor-I’m unsure if this is something that many survivors will admit to
Last student to integrate a public school-many are still willing to share their stories of their role in the Civil Rights Movement
Last witness of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
Last survivor of 9/11-this will be a long way off, but it is the one of the most significant events to happen since I was born. I will be interested to see how this event is remembered as we move into the future.
It is important that these stories are told while the witnesses are still alive. We do not have to wait for them to be the “last leaf” before we feel like we need to listen to them. All across our nation we have people who want to tell their stories. You may have a “last leaf” of a war or event in your hometown. Try to listen to these stories before they are gone forever. And who knows, one day you might be the “last leaf” of a noteworthy point in time.