Army Private Joseph Sherwood Hoover was born on April 9, 1911 in Waterloo, Iowa, the son of Roy J. Hoover (1883-1914) and Lillian Rose Sherwood (1885-1949). He is not a Pensacolian by birth or by marriage, but he and his mother are buried here making some believe he is. Just to set the record straight, he will be entered into Pensacola's "Hall of Honor" having sacrificed his life for his country. When Joseph was three years old his father died suddenly of heart failure. His parents owned a dairy at the time and when he didn't come back from the barn Lillian went looking for him. He found him lying on the ground in a coma where he died an hour later.
After Roy's death, Lillian was remarried to Lester Robert Henderson in 1924. The years went by until the onset of WWII when Joseph enlisted in the Army on February 27, 1942 in his hometown of Waterloo. He was sent to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for processing followed by an abbreviated basic training. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. There, he fought in the campaigns of North Africa, Italy, and finally hit the Omaha Beach on D-Day. From there till they crossed into Germany, they fought almost constantly. Finally, their eastern drive culminated in the capture of Bonn on March 8, 1945. From there, the 1st Division moved north into the Harz Mountains to eliminate German forces that had been isolated by the Allies' rapid advance. It was here that Joseph was killed in action on March 31, 1945 by a bomb blast.
In the meantime, she and Lester had moved to Pensacola in 1945 and settled in Ferry Pass close to her sister Mrs. Frank Lewis. Then came the telegraph from the war department notifying Lillian of her son's death with the normal attending condolences from a grateful nation. But Lillian was determined to bring Joseph home after the war and Pensacola was now their home. His remains were shipped into the L&N depot on Wright Street on January 19th and he was buried in Barrancas Cemetery the following day. Ten months later, Lillian died as well and was laid to rest in Bayview Cemetery.
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