Remains of man killed at Pearl Harbor returned to Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man will be laid to rest on Saturday, more than 80 years after he died in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

The U.S. Navy returned the remains of Seaman 1st Class Wilbur Francis Newton to Kansas City International Airport on Tuesday.

Newton was among more than 400 crewman killed on the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack.

His remains were identified as part of a project by the Department of Defense agency known as The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

Researchers needed maternal DNA to get a match, and reached the last living relative on Newton’s mother’s side before she died in 2012.

Robin Deeds, a child of one of Newton’s cousins, said Newton will be buried Saturday at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mound City. He said more than 50 cousins plan to attend the service, KCTV-TV reported.

Newton will be laid to rest in a burial plot with a grave marker that his parents bought for him before they died in the late 1940s.