LLOYD AYERS SR.

LLoyd Brooks Ayers Sr., 83, son of Jesse Montgomery and Walsie Ray Hampton, was born June 28, 1921, at Protem. He died March 18, 2005, at his home near Houston.Mr. Ayers enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, which later became the U.S. Air Force. He served in World War II and the Korean War as a fighter pilot flying P47s and P51s and later transferring to B29s. He was a recruiter with detachment 608 of the 3506th USAF recruiting group at Provo, Utah. He received the Tiger Detachment Recruiting Award numerous times as the top recruiting detachment in the 3506th. He was one of the top USAF recruiters in the nation while stationed in Utah and Wyoming. Prior to his orders to serve at Provo, he received two Presidential Citations, 14 ribbons and 16 Bronze Stars. He specialized in laundry management in the military and was honorably discharged in April 1961 while detached to the Strategic Air Command. Between enlistments, he was also a commercial pilot.After serving in the military, he and his wife operated a dry cleaning service at Seymour. At night he was a police officer there and served as a deputy sheriff. He later was a supervisor of laundry at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield and managed Deluxe Dry Cleaners in Kansas City, Kan.In 1969, he moved back to the Houston area to be near his elderly parents. He had various jobs and owned businesses in and around Texas County. He was a 32nd degree Mason in Columbus, Ohio.He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Willard “”Ed”” and Hillary “”Gene””; daughter, Twila; and two grandchildren.Surviving are his wife, Mary, of the home; sons, Lloyd Jr. of Summersville and James and Thomas of Houston; daughters, Renee Bloom of Mountain View, Linda Wood of Houston, Lisa Wait of Boring, Ore., Sonia McGuire of Licking, Ramona Hemphill of Clinton, Miss., Mary Lou Ayers of Florence, Miss., and Valerie Hutchins of Malta, Ohio; one sister, Loretta Bowling of Elk Creek; 21 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.Services were March 22 at the Evans Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Kendall Ford officiating. Burial was in the Tyrone Free Will Baptist Church Cemetery.Memorials may be made to the Tyrone Free Will Baptist Church Cemetery. “