DUKE, Norris H.

NORRIS H. DUKE

Ship’s Cook First Class · Plankowner, USS Silversides (SS-236)

Born / Died	9 Apr 1917 / 26 Feb 1986
Service no.	268-11-95
Commissioning rate	SC1c (15 Dec 1941)
Silversides tenure	15 Dec 1941 – 26 Feb 1942
Patrols aboard	0 (departed before patrol 1)
Other vessels	Sperry, LSV-1
Service	17 Apr 1934 – 21 Nov 1955 (BIRLS)

Prewar (1917–1941)

Norris Duke was born on 9 April 1917. The 1930 census places the family in Orlando, Florida, in an owned home at 1408 Oregon Street valued at $1,500. His father John H. (37) was a mechanical dentist who owned his own dental laboratory, and Elma (28) worked there unpaid. Norris was thirteen, and his brother Charles was ten. He enlisted in the Navy on 17 April 1934, eight days after his seventeenth birthday.

On Silversides (Dec 1941 – Feb 1942)

Duke commissioned aboard *Silversides* on 15 December 1941 as SC1c. He left on 26 February 1942, about nine weeks before she sailed on her first war patrol, and made none.

Patrol	Dates	CO	Credited sunk	Credited damaged
none

Later War (1942–1945)

From Silversides he went to the tender Sperry, then to LSV-1 and to shore billets. He left the submarine service entirely. The dates for these moves are not yet recorded.

Postwar (1945–1986)

Duke stayed in the Navy until his BIRLS discharge on 21 November 1955, after more than twenty-one years. The 1950 census finds him in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, listed in the Armed Forces, with his wife Opal (28) and daughter Shirley (9). He died on 26 February 1986.

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Research Notes

• 1930 household: the transcription lists the head as “John H Norris,” which looks like an inverted name. Check the image. Elma (28) would have been about fifteen at Norris’s birth, so confirm whether she was his mother. verify

• Departure: 26 Feb 1942 comes from the frontmatter; the destination is not recorded in the file. verify against the muster.

• Later service: dates for Sperry, LSV-1 and the shore billets are unresolved.

• Open: birthplace, obituary, Find a Grave.

• Source notes (carried over, verbatim):

  1950 Census Norris H. Duke (33), Opal G (28). Shirley A (9). Armed Forces.
  1930 Census John H Norris (37) and Elma (28). Norris H. (13), Charles (10). $1500 owned home at 1408 Oregon, Orlando FL. John was a mechanical dentist at the dental lab and Elma was an assistant worker at the dental lab. John owned his own business and Elma was a non-paid employee.
  Silversides to Sperry to LSV-1, to shore billets. He left the submarine service entirely.

Sources: 1930 and 1950 census; BIRLS; Silversides muster.