Foister Floyd Keck was born June 19, 1924 in Goin, Claiborne County, Tennessee as the third of five children of Arlis Joshua Keck (1895-1980) and Menada Carey Keck (1903-1907). He married Dorothy Elizabeth Castle (1926-2000) on September 4, 1944, in Middlesboro, Bell County, Kentucky. They had two children Brenda Helen Keck Reed and James Alan "Little Jimmy" Keck. Ai eighteen he registered for the World War II Draft on June 22, 1942 in Monroe, Michigan where he worked at Consolidated Paper Company. He entered active duty service in the US Navy on October 9, 1943 in Nashville. He served as Seaman First Class as a radio operator and gunner. He departed forPearl Harbor on June 3, 1943. At twenty he was assigned to the USS Hugh W. Hadley in San Diego on November 25, 1944. After shakedown training off California the Hadley set course for the Great Okinawa Invasion. On May 11, 1944 in the Battle of Okinawa the destroyers US Hadley and US Evans knocked down 38 Japanese suicide planes in a one hour forty five minute battle off Okinawa — "the bag was the largest ever reported for ships their size in a single action." The Hadley established an all time record for destroyers by bringing down 23 Japanese planes in 105 minutes. In the last 45 minutes the Hadley, although badly damaged, protected the crippled Evans and at one time seemed about to capsize. On June 6, 1945 he received an Honorable Discharge and departed for home on the USS Hocking. He returned to his job at Consolidated Paper in Monroe, Michigan. In 1953 he worked as a Porter for US Chicago and Northwestern Railroad in Chicago. He and Dottie separated and divorced in 1953. Foister was hospitalized March 31, 1956 in a coma from kidney failure. He died April 6, 1956 in Cook County Hospital in Chicago without regaining consciousness. On April 16, 1956 he was given a military funeral at Point Pleasant Church then buried at M. C. Keck Cemetery, where he rests beside his baby boy, James Alan Keck, and near his parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.