Hollis Bell

Hollis Fields Bell (Nov. 22, 1923 – March 6, 1944) was a sailor from Foster Crossroads killed in action in World War II.

See Also: Scott Countians killed in war

Biography

Born Nov. 22, 1923, Hollis F. Bell was the son of Tyree Rhodes Bell (1895-1950) and Sarah Ellen Boyatt (1886-1957). He was an only child.

Hollis’s father was a Kentucky native who served in World War I and then married into the Boyatt family at Foster Crossroads. His mother’s father, Elisha Boyatt, was a Union soldier during the Civil War. Sarah Ellen and her sister, Martha Boyatt, married brothers. Martha married Edward Luther Bell.

World War II

Seaman Bell enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the USS Scorpion. He fought in the Pacific theater during World War II.

On Jan. 5, 1944, after topping off with fuel at Midway, the Scorpion departed for a patrol of East China and the Yellow Sea. She requested a rendezvous with a nearby ship due to a member of the crew fracturing his arm. However, heavy seas prevented the injured sailor from being transferred. That was the last time the Scorpion was heard from. She was presumed lost on March 6, 1944.

It is assumed that the Scorpion may have been cictim of a mine line placed by the Japanese across the entrance to the Yellow Sea, though that was never confirmed.

The Scorpion had sank 10 ships and damaged two more during her first three patrols of the war.

Seaman Bell’s date of death is listed as March 6, 1944.

Aftermath

Seaman Bell is listed on the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, on the VFW Post 5669 Memorial Wall in Oneida, and on the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville, as well as the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville. He has a cenotaph at Foster Crossroads Cemetery, included on the headstone of his parents’ graves.