ENS HORACE L. BAYLESS, USN

Class 1945

Born September 11, 1921

Died April 6, 1945

Age 23

Hometown Bay Springs, Mississippi

Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1945 Lucky Bag:

Horace Lomax Bayless

Radio Club 3; Model Club 7.

From Bay Springs, famous for being “somewhere in Mississippi,” to the Naval Academy came the big business man of the South. Tall, dark, and “smooth,” “Max” came to us with a date book already full. When it came to academics, “Judge” Bayless didn’t have to know a thing; he just opened his mouth, and those big words flowed all over the place. He’s famous for having more friends and knowing more influential people than any other man in the Academy. But, his specialty is leadership; this has already won for him the coveted position of Regimental Adjutant. He’s on the way to the top. We’re placing our bets on the southern gentleman from Mississippi. Good sailing, “Max.”

He was a member of the Regimental Staff (1st set). The Class of 1945 was graduated in June 1944 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Horace was lost when a kamikaze struck USS Howorth (DD 592) on April 6, 1945 in the Philippine Sea. The ship survived, but Horace and six others were killed.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Horace was the ringbearer at his Aunt Jessie’s wedding. Per The Birmingham News, July 12, 1925, he “was attractive in a suit of white satin, bringing the ring in a pink rosebud.” His mother played the musical program and the wedding march.

Horace attended Ellisville Junior College and Mississippi State School of Engineering. He hoped to enter destroyer duty.

He married Emily Barbara Overesch at the Naval Academy on June 16, 1944. She was the daughter of Rear Admiral and Mrs. Harvey E. Overesch. She remarried James Christian Castle in December, 1946.

Horace’s father, Henry L., Jr., was an attorney at Bay Springs who also served one term as mayor of Union, Mississippi.

He was survived by his wife, Mrs Emily Overesch Bayless and has a memory marker in Mississippi.

Memorial

Horace’s name, along with those of his shipmates lost in the attack, are on the Howorth memorial plaque at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Henry Hamner ‘43 was also lost in this attack.

William Counts ‘45 was also in 20th Company.

Class of 1945

Horace is one of 58 members of the Class of 1945 on Virtual Memorial Hall.