- Date Of Birth: August 18, 1930
- Date Of Death: August 3, 2008
- State: Texas
August 18, 1930 – August 3, 2008
Billy L. Waldrop was born August 18, 1930 in Murray, Ky. and passed August 3, 2008. He served in the U.S. Army from 1945 ” 1948 then the U.S. Navy from 1948 to retirement in 1987 as a Command Master Chief. He was a Korean War veteran serving as a Corpsman with the U.S. Marines at the Chosen Reservoir and later with the 1st Force Recon in Viet Nam. In Korea he earned a Silver Star, Four Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. As a Navy reservist he served as an aide to Radm J.P. Connelly, Commander in Chief of Naval Command in Europe.During his career as a Corpsman he attended Harvard Medical School to learn medical photography and filmed the first open heart surgery. Later as a civilian he was a Medical photographer at U. of Tennessee Dental College and St. Jude Childrens Research graduated from Memphis State with a BSEd. and MEd. He developed the curriculum for the MEd. for Audio Visual Media Educational Technology as he was the first to graduate with this major. He was a pioneer in Audio Visual Media as a teaching was an athlete including being a player on the All Navy Semi-pro baseball team and he bowled, taught bowling to young people and to those who were to be bowling was a member of the Chicasaw Council for the Boy Scouts of America. He served as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for St. Tammany Parish, LA as a Road Capt. and EMT was married to Roberta East on December 13, 1964. He is survived by his wife; son, Steven K Waldrop and wife Tracy of Asheville, NC; daughter, Lynn Nance and husband Gary of Bastrop, TX; son, Barry Waldrop and wife Darla of Slidell, LA, eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; brother Charles D. Waldrop, Jr.; sister, Evann Hernandez and nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his mother “Bill” Waldrop, his father Charles Waldrop and his brother Dale Waldrop.
