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Olon Ottis Young was born the youngest
of eight children on August 24, 1923 to Oscar Frank Young and Hester
Mae (Callahan) Young in Vardaman, Mississippi. He died January 22,
2008 at Casa Maria Nursing Center in Roswell, New Mexico. He is
survived by his two daughters and their husbands—Sharon and George
Lee of Roswell, New Mexico, and Janice and Eric Glibbery of Las
Vegas, Nevada.
In 1943-1945, he served in Patton’s
Third Army during World War II, participating in the relief of
Bastogne and the liberation of Bergen Belsen. He received the
Bronze Star and The Purple Heart.
Upon returning home to the states, in
1946 he married Sylvia Viola Jennings of Herrickville, Pennsylvania.
They had two daughters, Sharon Sylvia Young(now Lee) and Janice
Rachel Young (now Glibbery).
Olon went to school on the G. I. Bill
to learn farm management. He managed various farms over the
following 10 years, as well as worked in various factories. In 1962,
he started his own business, Young’s Heating, Plumbing and Air
Conditioning in Biglerville, Pennsylvania. He retired from that
business in 1982. Until 2001, Olon worked with his cousin in
Mississippi doing the same type of work on a part-time basis.
In later years, Olon cared for his wife
who succumbed to Parkinson’s and its accompanying dementia. In March
2003, they returned to live with their daughter and son-in-law,
Sharon and George Lee, in Roswell, New Mexico. Sylvia died in 2004,
also after a brief stay in Casa Maria Nursing Center.
Despite failing eyesight and poor
hearing, Olon launched a new phase of retirement life built around
daily games of billiards at the Joy Center, lunch with his friends,
weekly bowling and Sunday School classes, as well as volunteering
with his political party’s local endeavors. He joined the morning
walkers at the Roswell Mall and continued to stay fit and active. He
stayed in touch with friends across the country through a weekly
phone circle.
By the end of October 2007, failing
health curtailed many of his former activities and caused him to
give up driving and his daily pool games. He was diagnosed with
terminal cancer November 30, 2007, and quickly declined
thereafter. When told of his diagnosis, Daddy responded, “ Well,
I’ve had a good life, and I am ready to go, so I guess it’s
alright.” He will be interred beside his wife at Memory Lawn.
Funeral services are being held by LaGrone Funeral Home, Rev. Rigby
of the Church of the Nazarene presiding. Services are to be held,
Saturday January 26, 2008 at 10:00 A.M.
If you wish to give your condolences
online you may do so at
www.lagronefuneralchapels.com.
Arrangements are under the directions
of LaGrone Funeral Chapel
http://www.lagronefuneralchapels.com
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