‘He is finally home’: Effingham County celebrates return of sailor killed in Pearl Harbor attack

By Rob Stroud

Click here for updates on this story

    BEECHER CITY, Georgia (Herald & Review) — Rev. Brett Sapp said funerals are typically somber occasions but the one on Tuesday for his uncle, U.S. Navy Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Keith Tipsword, was also a celebration.

“What a great day. He is here. He is finally home,” Sapp, pastor of the Redemption Church in Johnston City, said as he led the service for Tipsword at Johnson Funeral Home in Effingham.

Tipsword was finally able to buried alongside his parents and other family members at Moccasin Cemetery in Effingham County, decades after the 27-year-old was killed while serving on the battleship USS West Virginia when Japanese forces attacked Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Community members turn out Tuesday to pay their final respects for U.S. Navy Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Keith Tipsword, who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. DNA was used to identify Tipsword’s remains, making his return home to be buried in Effingham County possible.

His remains had been buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific until they were identified this year by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Those joyous sentiments were echoed by Tipsword’s las surviving sibling his sister, Dalyne Sapp of Effingham, after the burial service in rural Beecher City.

“It’s wonderful. It warms my heart, for sure,” said Dalyne Sapp, 86, noting that her brother is now buried near the family farm where he grew up among the “hills and hollers” of Moccasin Township.

Navy Chaplain Andy Richards presents Dalyne Sapp, 86, with the U.S. flag from her brother’s coffin during a burial service at Moccasin Cemetery in Beecher City.

Sapp is the last of Tipsword’s seven siblings still living.

The POW/MIA Accounting Agency used DNA provided approximately five years go by Sapp and her sister, Betty Fae Yocum of Toledo, who died in 2019, to identify Tipsword and make the return of his remains to his family possible.

The Navy arranged for Tipsword’s remains to be flown into St Louis Lambert Airport on Thursday, at no charge to the family, and for a Navy honor guard to carry the casket from the plane to the hearse. The Navy also provided an honor guard at the burial service. The sailors carried the flag draped casket from the hearse to the grave and then carefully folded the flag, which Chaplain Andy Richards presented to Dalyne Sapp.

More than 60 motorcyclists from the Patriot Guard Riders escorted the casket on Interstate 70 from St. Louis to Effingham on Thursday and approximately a dozen of the rider took part in the services on Tuesday.

In addition to their role escorting Tipsword from St. Louis and again to the cemetery, members of the Patriot Guard Riders presented Sapp with a plaque honoring her brother and with a POW/MIA flag.

“It was a very humbling experience to say the least,” said Rolling Thunder Illinois Chapter 3 President Tony Schmidt of escorting the remains of a sailor lost at Pearl Harbor back to his home county.

The Olney resident said he is glad to see more and more remains of service members being identified and returned to their families.

“Whenever someone does get to come home, it’s a blessing.”

Tri County Fire and Rescue Chief Doug Ray was among those in the procession to the cemetery.

Ray said he wanted to take part because he has known the Sapp family for more than 40 years and because Tipsword will be buried in Tri County’s fire district.

Ray said he also feels a connection to the history of the Pearl Harbor attack because his father, James Ray, was serving there on the battleship USS Pennsylvania, which was across the bay in drydock for repairs at the time. Ray said his father went on to serve in the Pacific as a gunner throughout World War II.

People watch the funeral procession before the burial service of Keith Tipsword, who was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor while serving in the Navy, at Moccasin Cemetery in Beecher City on Tuesday.

Emergency responder participation in the procession also included the Effingham Fire Department flying a giant flag from its ladder truck at the funeral home and the Altamont Fire Protection District blocking intersections in its town, where school students lined the streets.

“It’s a part of history that I didn’t think I would ever see,” said Altamont firefighter Jarrett Goers, who was accompanied by his wife Samantha and their children, Lilly, 2, and Madilyn, 1.

Altamont Chief Jon Becker said the Tipsword family has a long history of volunteering with the fire protection district, so the firefighters wanted to make sure to show their respects. He added that to have Tipsword’s remains be identified and returned home is a major event for the community.

One of the sailor’s cousins, Korean War era Navy veteran Garry Tipsword of rural Beecher City, said he has childhood memories of his cousin and was glad to see him buried at home.

“It was amazing, absolutely amazing. For 80 years, we didn’t know where he was,” Garry Tipsword said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.