Obituary of Charles Glore

A Life Forever Linked to a Day of Infamy Charles C. Glore: 11/13/1923 - 12/1/2012 Charley Glore died of heart failure on December 1, 2012 in Menlo Park, CA, at the age of 89. But it could be fair to say that the clock had already stopped for him on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Born November 13, 1923 in Ripley County, MO, Charles Claude Glore was the middle of three sons. The father, Glenn K. Glore, died when Charley was only 3 ½ years old. Aubrey, Charley and John were brought up by their widowed mother, Vivian, who instilled in them strong ties to the Glore family. All three boys would serve with distinction in the armed forces during World War II. Charley was almost a month past his eighteenth birthday and serving in the Navy aboard the USS Nevada when enemy planes began bombing and strafing the anchored Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. He was apparently in a line of men carrying heavy artillery shells on that Sunday morning when he was suddenly blown off deck and into the oil-covered water. It was reported that Charley swam many yards to safety under the oil, which was afire all around him. He awoke in a hospital in San Diego, CA, remembering nothing about his ordeal. The Navy could not identify him, and Charley could not say. It was only after he finally mentioned the name of an aunt who lived in Kansas City, MO, Mrs. Pearl Glore Hufstedler, that Charley began to regain connections to his family. He had lost all his hair in the fire, and when it began growing back, it was white. Brilliant, yet difficult to live with, Charley Glore went on to earn a law degree. He drifted through much of the rest of his life, relying more and more upon others to look after his own best interests. He spent most of his final years as a ward of the State of California. But he held fast to family ties, often tucking a five-dollar bill in his letters written in his indecipherable scrawl to aunts and cousins. Charley refused to ever again write or speak of the defining day of is life, that Day of Infamy in 1941. According to his wishes, he was buried next to his father on December 24, 2012 at Big Barren cemetery, in northern Ripley County MO.