Seaman 2nd Class Lloyd R. Timm, 19, of Kellogg, Minn., died at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, aboard the USS Oklahoma when the battleship was hit by multiple Japanese torpedoes and capsized on Dec. 7, 1941. (DPAA)
(Tribune News Service) — The tiny town of Kellogg, Minn., will play host this Labor Day to a larger-than-life World War II hero who has waited 80 years for his homecoming.
Navy Seaman 2nd Class Lloyd Timm was just 19 when he was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor while serving aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma. He was one of many whose remains were unidentifiable until the advancement of DNA testing.
After a year-long delay, due to the pandemic, Timm's remains were brought home via Southwest Airlines Thursday afternoon. Family members, mostly from the Rochester, Minn., area, but some as far away as Colorado, gathered on the tarmac as the flag-draped casket was carried off the plane by six Navy pallbearers.
"This kind of stuff just brings the family together," said Timm's nephew Lloyd Ness, who was named after his uncle. Ness, a 63-year-old high school track coach from Woodbury, added that it was very meaningful to the family "to see how much people go through to sacrifice for us."
He and other family members donated samples of their DNA, which were used to help identify Timm's remains.
Timm was among the 429 crewmen who died Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack that spurred the U.S. entry into World War II. He, along with other unidentified crewmen, were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu until 2015 when the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began the process of identifying the unnamed crew.
"This is a tremendous honor for us," said Cmdr. John Stump, commanding officer of Navy Operational Support Center Minneapolis. "Helping bring closure to sailors' families is important work for all service members, but being able to provide honors for a sailor who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Pearl Harbor attack just adds importance to the occasion."
Timm was born July 24, 1922, in Kellogg to Rudolph and Clara Timm. He was one of six children. He graduated from Kellogg High School in 1940 and enlisted in the Navy in 1941. His brother, Warren, had also been assigned to the USS Oklahoma, but had been transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., just prior to the attack.
Timm's parents, brothers and sisters-in-law are deceased. His remaining family members know little about Timm's short life, but the town has honored him with a memorial and by naming a ball field after him.
His memorial service, with full military honors, will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Greenfield Cemetery in the southeastern town of Kellogg. There will be a visitation from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at Abbott Funeral Home in Wabasha.
Following the memorial service, there will be a public dedication ceremony of the Lloyd Timm Memorial Ball Field in Kellogg.
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