- Date Of Birth: October 23, 1923
- Date Of Death: July 15, 2013
- State: Florida
Joe M. Lundy, Sr. was born on October 23, 1923 in Albany, GA to Basil M. and Florris Chappell Lundy and died peacefully in his sleep at home after a brief illness on July 15, 2013 at age 89.
Joe grew up in Albany in a large extended family since his father was the youngest of 13 siblings and his mother was the youngest of eleven. The annual Family Reunions were large and lively affairs. Joe often cited the fact that he had 21 first cousins in the military during WW II. Following graduation from Albany High School, he followed his brother up to the University of Georgia. About midway through, his studies there were interrupted by the outbreak of WW II. He had enough university credit so that he was admitted to the U.S.
Following additional training, he was attached to a squadron of blimps flying anti-submarine convoy patrol missions of up to several days duration out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had commented that his first Crew Chief was more than twice his age.
Based on the needs of the Navy, he was transferred to the Pensacola Naval Air Station in early ’44 in order to transition to ‘heavier-than-air’ aircraft. After finishing primary training at Pensacola in the Boeing PT-17 Stearman ‘Yellowbird’, he was posted to the Ottumwa Iowa Naval Air Station for advanced flight training.
The next step was training in the F4U Corsair followed by assignment to a squadron assigned to the carrier USS Yorktown in the Pacific where he finished out the conflict. He was fond of saying that the only war wound he ever received was on the Yorktown and came from jamming a finger against the overhead of the hanger deck during a game of volleyball. He continued to serve in the US Naval Reserves for over 20 years.
While training in Iowa, he attended a USO dance where he met his first wife, Miss Patricia Eichhorn of Oskaloosa, Iowa and they were later married in the Chapel at NAS Pensacola in May of ’45.
Following the war, as with many of his generation, it was back to the University of Georgia to resume his education and the experience marked him as an enthusiastic, lifelong UGA Bulldog fan.
In 1974, he married the love of his life, Marsha, whom he fondly called “Scarlet Dahlin”. He was a wonderful step-father and helped raise Marsha’s three children. The couple spent 39 fairy-tale years in a life of travel, friends, and wonderful companionship. The retirement years were spent at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida and at Sugar Mill Country Club in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
He had an affection for the various airplanes he owned and piloted over his lifetime. He was especially fond of the two Boeing-Stearman PT-17s which he had restored, put on static display and flown in local air shows, including performing some aerobatics. He was a mediator for Volusia County for 10 years, and was on the vestry at St.
Joe had an ever cheerful disposition and outlook on life and the people he encountered. His standard response to the “How are you doing?” question was, “Never had a bad day… ” and he was proud to enshrine this sentiment on his car license plate for all to see, ‘NHABD’.
Mr. Lundy is survived by his wife Marsha, son Joe Jr. and his wife Janie of Arlington, Texas, son Joe Kessinger of Prairie Village, Kansas, daughter Katie Snapp and her husband Bobby Holstead of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and daughter Kara and Jim Brittingham of Winnetka, Illinois. He also leaves 11 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren, as well as a host of cousins. Joe had one older brother, James Elton, who preceded him in death in 1983.
