OAKLAND – One of the last few dozen survivors of the worst open-sea tragedy in United States naval history passed quietly Wednesday in a Decatur nursing home.

Earl Riggins was 86.

The Champaign native, who spent his waning years on his 27-acre spread in Oakland, was known for being a hard-working farmer, a prolific talker, an accomplished horseman, and one of the 39 Marines aboard the USS Indianapolis on its final run July 30, 1945.

Unknown to the men on board, they had just delivered components for the atomic bomb that would swiftly end World War II.

Struck by Japanese torpedoes, the ship went down in 13 minutes in the South Pacific, sending about 900 of the 1,200 crew members into the shark-infested waters where they clung to life for almost four days before being discovered. Only 317 were pulled alive from the water.

Of that number, it's believed 53 are still living.

Riggins and his wife Dorothy, also 86, were among a core group instrumental in organizing the first reunion of the survivors in 1960. Only nine of the Marines lived.

"He was just a nice all-around farm boy," said longtime friend and fellow Indianapolis survivor Don McCall, 86, of Champaign. "That sounds crazy, but he was a central Illinois guy – very nice, very considerate."

Peggy McCall Campo, daughter of Don McCall, grew up attending USS Indianapolis reunions in Indiana's capital and is now active with the survivors' group. She can easily spit out many of the stories that have slipped from the memories of the aging survivors.

"He was such a friendly guy, so jovial all the time," said Campo. "He was always fun because he was a Marine. The Navy guys gave him a bunch of guff and he gave it right back to them."

Last Saturday, Campo and her father, along with several other friends they've made through their shared Indianapolis experience, made their way to Decatur to visit Riggins. One son of a now-deceased Indianapolis survivor even drove from Virginia to be there, Campo said.

"It was wonderful," Judy Whalen of Forsyth said of the visit her dad had with the friends. "It meant a lot to my dad. He definitely did (recognize them). He talked to them."

Among the visitors was Art Leenerman, 86, of Mahomet, also an Indianapolis survivor.

"He was a good, ordinary person. He was a farmer and that's what he liked to do. He raised horses, took horses to horse shows," Leenerman recalled.

Like McCall, Leenerman didn't get to be good friends with Riggins until after the reunions began in the 1960s. They didn't know each other on the ship, but living near each other in East Central Illinois, the three men and their wives got together frequently.

"We'd go out to lunch about once a month," Leenerman said.

In November, on Mr. Riggins' 86th birthday, he and his wife moved from their Douglas County farm to an assisted-living home in Decatur to be closer to their daughter.

"That was tough for him," Whalen said. "Dad was hugely involved in horses. He loved to trail ride. He taught my mom how to ride a horse at 75. They rode some really steep trails down in the Shawnee National Forest (in southern Illinois).

"His last trail ride was in July. He rode horses clear through to August. He lived and breathed horses," Whalen said. "He met many, many great friends through the trail riding experience."

Campo said many Indianapolis survivors, en route to the annual reunions, were known to stop at the Rigginses' farm where they rode, hunted and reminisced.

Riggins will be buried in Grandview Memorial Gardens northwest of Champaign, not far from property he once farmed on Champaign's west side.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years; Whalen, 51; and a son, Steve Riggins, 59, of Ontario, Canada. Another daughter, Linda, died in 1990.

He also has three grandchildren and was a huge cheerleader for two of his granddaughters.

"He lived and breathed coming to watch them play basketball," Whalen said.

Like other Indianapolis survivors, Whalen said her father rejected any attempts to be labeled a hero.

"They wouldn't have done anything different than any other man. Every man, whether they went through this experience or not, was there to serve and that's all that mattered," she said.