Elvis Nelson Spotts was born in Randolph County, Missouri on October 6, 1925. He was one of three children born to David William and Lucille (Markland) Spotts. 

On October 9, 2024 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) made the following press announcement from Washinton DC: 

Merchant Marine Wiper Elvis N. Spotts, 18, of Kansas City, Missouri, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Sept. 13, 2018.

In February 1944, Spotts was a crew member of the SS Cape Isabel, part of a convoy of three ships including the USS Grayson and the SS Cape Fear. On Feb. 22, 1944, the ships were approximately 12 miles off the coast of Tarawa Atoll. The two Merchant Marine vessels were bringing supplies to Betio Island. Spotts was electrocuted during bilge maintenance. He was unable to be revived.

On Feb. 23, 1944, Spotts was buried with military honors in the U.S. Marine Cemetery on Betio Island.

In the aftermath of the fighting on Tarawa, U.S. service members who died in and after the battle were buried in a number of battlefield cemeteries on the island. The 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company conducted remains recovery operations on Betio between 1946 and 1947, but Spotts’ remains were not identified and he was declared non-recoverable.

In 2017, members of History Flight, Inc., a non-profit organization, discovered a coffin buried in Cemetery #33 on Betio, which contained possible osseous remains.  These Unknown remains were transferred to the DPAA laboratory for examination and identification.

To identify Spotts’ remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as dental and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Spotts’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Elvis Spotts died a hero serving his country during WWII and will finally be laid to rest next to his parents in Armstrong, Missouri. Elvis’s first cousins were Glenn Collier of Fayette and Bill Markland of Armstrong. His closest living descendants in the Fayette, Missouri area are Linda Frink, Susan Donnelly, Mary Jarboe and John Markland. In addition to his parents, Elvis was preceded in death by two brothers, Kenneth and A.C. Spotts.

A funeral service honoring Elvis N. Spotts will be 1:30 PM, Saturday, November 9, 2024 at Friemonth-Freese Funeral Home in Fayette, Missouri, with Rev. Bill O’Neal officiating. Burial with full military honors will be held at Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Armstrong, Missouri. A reception will follow the services at the Jarboe residence, 600 N. Church St., Fayette, Missouri.  

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions are suggested to the Patriot Guard.