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Funeral Services Set For Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond, 104
January 17, 2023
Funeral services have been set for local Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Emond who passed away January 10 at age 104.
A visitation and reception will be held Friday, January 20 from 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at Oak Lawn Funeral Home on New Warrington Road, followed by a funeral service from 1:30 p.m. until 2:45 p.m. A graveside service will follow at 3 p.m. 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 Emond, CWO4 USN (RET.), 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.
Comments
5 Responses to “Funeral Services Set For Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond, 104”
As little time that I met him, he was a joy. RIP Frank, may God be With You!!
Thanks for a life of service to our country. I had the honor of working with Frank at NAVAL HOSPITAL Pensacola, for over 8 years. Honored to listen to his stories of surviving Pear Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. A true American HERO.
A life well lived, Chief.
Fair winds and following seas, Sir.
Rest in peace sir