Latest Headlines
- Molino Dollar General Assistant Manager And Her Boyfriend Charged With Theft
- Thursday CSX Crossing Closure Update, And Yes They Will Fix Old Chemstrand
- One Injured In Highway 29 Crash
- Escambia Commission Installs Four Commissioners, New Chair And Vice-Chair
- Rep. Michelle Salzman Says She’s Running For Congress After Gaetz Resignation
- Century Extends Town Management Services Contact With South Florida Company; One Council Member Objects
- New Long-Term Parking Opens At Pensacola Airport
- New Tax Collector Brentwood Office Opens, Replacing Marcus Pointe Location
- Northview Chiefs Boys, Girls Sweep Atmore Christian (With Gallery)
- Tate’s Jordan Smith Signs With New College Of Florida
Funeral Services Held For Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond, 104
January 21, 2023
Funeral services were held Friday for local Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Emond who passed away January 10 at age 104.
Following the funeral service at Oak Lawn Funeral Home, a graveside service was held at Barrancas National Cemetery.
Originally from Rhode Island, Emond enlisted in the Navy in 1938 as a musician. He played the French horn for the ship’s band and even got to perform at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York before he was assigned to the USS USS Pennsylvania. CWO4 USN (RET.) Emond, spent his naval career as a musician and band director. He was on the stern of the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) getting ready to play morning “Colors” on his French horn when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Emond then walked to the conductor’s stand, picked up the baton and proceeded to direct the band in “Stars and Stripes”.
After seven years of playing horn, he became a Navy bandleader, retiring in 1968.
He remained a music man; sometimes leading the music at Gonzalez Methodist and performing with the Pensacola Civic Band.
Last May, Emond broke his own world record when he led the Pensacola Civic Band in the seventh annual Pensacola Memorial Day Concert at the Community Maritime Park amphitheater.
He held the Guinness World Record as “World’s Oldest Conductor” for leading the U.S. Air Force Band’s Airmen of Note in Glenn Miller’s iconic “In the Mood” at the American Veteran Center’s “America Valor: A Salute to our Heroes”. He set the previous record at age 103 last November in Washington, D.C.
Photos for, and NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
3 Responses to “Funeral Services Held For Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond, 104”
A true American. His Country and family should be proud.
What an amazing person. I wish I had known him.
A paradigm of the greatest generation.