US Navy pilot Clark Franklin Rinehart was born in Ridgeway, Harrison County, Missouri on May 30, 1910, the son of Frank Turner Rinehart (1884-1976) and Ola May Sanders (1884-1933). His father supported his family of nine children as a Missouri farmer but by 1930 his son Clark had finished school and became a public-school teacher. But before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Clark had enlisted in the Navy in 1937 and received his wings of gold in Pensacola, Florida on June 8, 1938. Here, he met Dorothy Ruth Dupuy from the Pensacola High School Class of 1937 and the daughter of Joseph Edgar Dupuy (1888-1966) and Marie Camilla Sheets (1893-1974). Her father was a shipping clerk at a lumber mill.
During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Clark was flying air cover over his carrier, the USS Lexington, on May 8, 1942, the second day of the battle. Suddenly, Japanese attack planes came out of the clouds as Clark and his comrades flew to intercept them. Four of the enemy torpedo planes were shot down before they dropped their torpedoes, but ten broke through and hit the Lexington twice on the port side. Another attack by dive bombers hit the ship with two bombs that inflicted significant damage and casualties. In all, three Wildcat fighters were lost in the dogfight. Clark never returned to the carrier and was most likely one of the three shot down. Shortly afterwards, his beloved Lexington would sink to the bottom of the Pacific until her discovery on March 4, 2018 at 9,800 feet below the surface. Clark's bravery and sacrifice forestalled the inevitable but could not prevent the loss of the Lexington and the lives of 216 sailors. Clark would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts in addition to a new destroyer DE-196 named in his honor.
Back home Dorothy received the news that Clark was missing in action and probably not coming home. She would remarry on March 20, 1945 to a USNA graduate, Class of 1943. He was in flight training at Saufley Field when the two met having just returned from the South Pacific. Dorothy would pass away in 2009. Dorothy's brother, John Krumwise Dupuy from the Pensacola High Class of 1942 enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and became a P-51 fighter pilot with the US 8th Air Force in Europe. Clark's brother, Carl Ward Rinehart had also joined the conflict in the South Pacific as a B-24 bomber pilot. He too married a Pensacola girl by the name of Una Clare Merritt, daughter of William Joseph Merritt Sr. and Isabel W. Lee. He was credited with sinking a large enemy ammunition ship in the South Pacific plus two enemy patrol vessels and a railroad bridge together with two enemy trains. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired as Navy captain before passing away in Pensacola on January 14, 1996. He was buried in Barrancas Cemetery with full military honors.
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