Dates

• Existence: 1915 - 2008

Biography

Lee Embree was born in Iowa in 1915 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1936. Embree was assigned to the 38th Reconnaissance Squadron as an aerial photographer. On February 22, 1941 Embree married Elizabeth Gene "Betty" Lain.

On December 7, 1941 Embree was a passenger on a four-engine Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, flying to the Philippines from California. The trip included a refueling stop at Hickam Field near Honolulu, Hawaii. Embree, who was being permanently transferred from Albuquerque, New Mexico to the Philippines, brought his Speed Graphic camera with him for the trip. He took photographs of the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. Some of Embree's historic photographs later appeared in Life Magazine, Time Magazine and other publications.

Embree remained based at Pearl Harbor as an aerial photographer until February 1942 and then was stationed in Fiji for the following nine months. He became a combat photographer with the Army Signal Corps and served in a number of locations and theaters throughout the Pacific, including New Caledonia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Guadalcanal.

Embree enlisted in the Air Force Reserve in 1945. He retired as a Major from the military in 1957 and continued working in photography. He also became involved in the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Embree and his family lived and worked in Southern California for many years and moved to Port Angeles, Washington in 1988. Embree's wife, Betty, passed away in 1998 and he married his second wife, Violet "Vi" Timm McRoberts, in 2001. He died at his home in 2008 of a kidney infection.

Source:

Biography derived from collection materials, donor information, and "Lee Embree," Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Embree).

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