Warren Everett Sapp was born on December 5, 1913 in San Diego, California, the son of George and Etta Sapp  The family lived in the Dominguez Township in Los Angeles, unincorporated Wilmington Precinct, at the time of the 1930 Census. One year later, he was living at 1918 220th street in Torrance. 

When Sapp was 15 years old, he addressed the Keystone Baptist Church and spoke on the topic of “Why do I come to Sunday School.”  He was an avid hunter, active in the local Boy Scouts (Keystone troop) where he was honored as an Eagle Scout. Keystone was the site of present day Carson.

He attended Torrance High School where he was well-liked and was one of sixteen students who graduated with the Winter Class in 1932. Sapp played the cornet in the combined band and orchestra and also performed cornet solos at local events.  As a senior, he won second place in the school final of the annual oratorical contest. He was also the business and advertising manager for the Torrance News Torch, the school newspaper.  

He married Laura Stopher on July 17, 1939 per state of California records. Geraldine Lora Sapp is listed as his wife in the U.S. Navy Combat Naval Casualties in World War II.  

He was working at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California at the time he filled out his World War II Draft Card in October 1940. The 1942 Lennox City Directory lists him as working as a toolmaker at Northrop and living with his wife Geraldine.  

Warren E. Sapp enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve in August 31, 1942 in Los Angeles. He was a Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class when he was killed in action while serving aboard the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56). This was a Casablanca-class “flattop” (aircraft carrier) shorter than regular aircraft carriers and hastily built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. 

According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, cynical members of warships with the hull designation CVE often described these ships as “combustible, vulnerable, expendable.”  These criticisms were not unfounded as events would show. 

On November 24, 1943, the USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the Gilbert Islands. One of a spread of torpedoes hit the ship in the worst possible location, near the ship’s bomb magazine. A wall of flames erupted on the hangar deck and aviation fuel pooled on the surface of the water. 

The ship sank in only 23 minutes. All told 644 men lost their lives, including Machinist’s Mate 2c Warren Everett Sapp, USNR. Sapp was survived by his wife Geraldine Lora Sapp who was living in Los Angeles, his mother Etta formerly of Torrance who was living in Long Beach, a sister who lived in Burbank, California and a brother who lived in Alaska.

Warren E. Sapp was awarded the Purple Heart Medal posthumously and is the second sailor who had lived and attended school in Torrance who perished in the sinking of the Liscome Bay. Seaman 2c James D. Sanders from Walteria, Torrance is the other. They are both memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii as well as the Torrance Veterans Memorial Wall.