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Claudius Andrew LaLone

SN Seaman (E-3) LaLone was trained as a Radioman at Great Lakes Naval base, North Chicago, Illinois.

He was transferred to the "interned" German Liner, Frederich Der Grosse, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Died of burns while fighting a shipboard fire.

Boot Camp photo, Great Lakes Naval base, North Chicago, Illinois early 1917.

Narrative

Buried Old Westbrook Lutheran Church Cemetery, Westbrook, Cottonwood County, Minnesota.

Was the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Lalone, and was born Sept. 2S, 1898, in Highwater Township. He volunteered as soon as war was declared in the Navy after receiving his mother's consent, as he was only 17 years of age. His mother was living in N. D. at the time and he enlisted there. He has the distinction of being the first volunteer for the Navy and also the first sailor to give his life from N. D. He received training at the Great Lakes training station in the Radio Service, and was transferred to the interned German liner, "Frederick der Grosse," in the Brooklyn Navy Yards. In some mysterious way, this boat was set on fire and it was while he was fighting the flames on this boat that he was both burned and exposed to the weather, so that he took sick and died of diphtheria on June 13, 1917. His body, attended by a detail of sailors, was shipped to Cottonwood Co., and buried in the Westbrook cemetery in Ann Township.