Person:William Lyon (66)

Mr Lyon was born in Paragould Arkansas as his father was telegrapher for the railroad. Upon the death of his father in the middle of the great depression, he and his mother Vera removed to her hometown, Columbus Kentucky where her mother Susan Mary Winn lived (his grandmother).There he purchased an automobile, a Ford Model A (The Ford Model A was the first automobile to have the pedals, ie. clutch,brake,accelerator as we know them today) despite his father's past aversion for them (being a railroad man, he and his family could go wherever they wanted for free). When the World war II broke out, Mr.Lyon joined the Navy Construction Battalion (CB'S) where he was sent to the Pacific Theater. The CB's dredged ports, graded islands for airports and various other construction projects such as rebuilding the governors mansion in Pearl Harbor after it was razed by the Japanese. My father came home on leave and his niece who saw him said he was as red as a lobster (sunburn). It was a dangerous job. One day his fellow sailors were using dynamite to break up some coral in their dredging project. Unfortunately the dynamite exploded at the wrong time, killing several sailors. My father remembered this episode the rest of his life. After the war he studied Geological Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Mr.Lyon was a licensed Kentucky Geological Engineer. He worked in the coal and gas industry many years as well as doing geological surveilling. He later worked for the City of Lexington Kentucky as an Engineer. He was a gregarious person and belonged to several social clubs over the years, the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, the Sons of the Revolution, the Freemasons and the Casting Club just to mention a few. Babo