RUSSELLVILLE — The remains of Royle Bradford Luker, a North Little Rock sailor killed at Pearl Harbor when he was 17, are returning to Arkansas for burial with full military honors.
Luker, a Fireman Third Class aboard the USS West Virginia, died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His remains were recovered but unidentified for decades and interred as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified him in 2024 through DNA analysis and forensic evidence.
Graveside services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, May 30, at New Bethel Cemetery near Plainview in Yell County. He will be laid to rest alongside his parents, George F. Luker, a World War I veteran, and Nettie Estelle Luker.
Luker was born March 15, 1924, in North Little Rock. He is survived by nephews Donald Bradford Henderson and John Luker, and niece Becky Downen Lensing.
His homecoming comes just before Memorial Day, offering a moment to honor one of Arkansas’ youngest World War II casualties more than eight decades after his death.
