Earl C Hoskins Sr.

Aug. 8, 1923—Dec. 19, 2015

Earl Hoskins was born Aug. 8, 1923, in Kanawha County, W. Va., and died Dec. 19, 2015, in Fair Oaks, Calif. He was 92 years old.

As a young man, Earl lived on West Virginia’s Kanawha River on a house boat with other boys and worked in the local mines. He left high school in the tenth grade to join the Civil Conservation Corps.

Following Dec. 7, 1941, Earl attempted to volunteer for the military but was turned away because the number of volunteers was causing trouble with the draft. He was 18. He had to wait until he was called to join the Navy reserves.

He was assigned to the USS California, which was stationed in Bremerton, Wash., to undergo repairs due to damage suffered at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

While on weekend leave, he met Florence Lorraine Hoskins (May 31, 1925-Jan. 28, 2015). They were married four months later, Nov. 14, 1943, in Manchester Community Church. He left soon after for a tour in the Pacific Theater.

Earl worked with the refrigeration crew in the mechanics A Division and manned the California’s 20mm gun. The ship engaged in Saipan, Guam, Palau, Leyte Gulf, Okinawa and the Battle of Surigao Strait, where the California helped sink the Japanese battleship Yamashiro. He became a golden shellback by crossing the equator in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Following the end of World War II, Earl was given on honorable discharge.

Earl and Florence moved to Yakima, Wash., where he went to trade school. The family moved to West Virginia, where Earl worked in construction, including working on The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs. In 1956, Earl was hired as a sheet metal worker in Los Angeles, Calif., and moved his growing family west.

In 1967, Earl and Florence moved to the Bay Area. Earl remained in the construction field until he retired. In 1988, the couple moved to Pollock Pines, Calif., where they caught the travel bug. In 1992, they moved to Gardnerville, Nev., before returning to California for health reasons in 2007.

Earl and Florence loved to travel. They visited Puerto Rico, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and took numerous trips across the continental United States in their fifth-wheel.

Earl was a member of the Gardnerville (Nev.) Baptist Church, the Sheet Metal Workers Union 104 of San Jose, and a 50-plus-year member of the Nitro Masonic Lodge of Nitro, W. Va.

He was proceeded in death by his wife, Florence, and daughter-in-law Vickie. He is survived his six children Nickie (Gerry), Earl Jr., Ann (James), Gary (Pamela), Dale, and Debbie (Victor); 10 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. at Mt. Vernon Mortuary in Fair Oaks, Calif. Military internment services will be held at 1 p.m. at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, Calif.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for individuals to make a donation to the Shriners Hospital for Children. http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/