- Arthur L Wallace (A.L.) 85, a longtime resident of Lorena, died Nov. 13, 2002, at Providence Hospital in Waco.
Services will be at 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 15 at Connally/Compton with the Rev. Larry "Lalo" Castillo officiating. Burial will immediately follow at Chapel Hill Memorial Park.
A. L. was born Sept. 26, 1917, in Axtell, Texas, to A. D. and Julia Trollinger Wallace. His early life was spent in the Axtell, Gholson and China Spring communities. He moved to Lorena in 1949.
A. L. was an accomplished baseball player, playing on many of the regional teams in the 1930's and the 1940's. Prior to the outbreak of the war, he was scheduled to try out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After the war, he continued to play on the local Universal Atlas Cement Plant team.
He joined the U.S. Army in 1940 and served with both the Army and eventually the Army Air Corps until his discharge in 1945. He was a member of Company B, 142nd Regiment, 16th Division, Fifth Army and served in both North Africa and Italy. He was in combat with Company B during the earliest stages of the Italian campaign during WWII, including the landing at Salerno on Sept. 9, 1943. He was wounded near the town of Altavilla nine days after the initial landing. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals during this time.
Following his military service, he was employed at the Universal Atlas Cement Plant (now Lehigh Corporation) and retired after 36 years of service in 1982. A. L. was a member of Lorena First Baptist Church.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 42 years, Patsy Ruth Wallace in 1994 and his oldest sister, Edna Earl Cook, in 1998.
He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Karen Wallace of Macon, Ga; brother, Bob, Bill, and Roy of Waco, and Henry (Garland) of Lorena; sisters, Nell Wallace, Laura Ling, and Mary Neal of Lorena and Shirley Springfield of Lott; and 30 nieces and nephews. He is also survived by his devoted caregiver, Charlotte Castillo.
Connally/Compton Funeral Home
|
1917 - 2002 (85 years)
