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