Louis Johnson Lyons

Obituary was published in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, October 22, 2001:

Louis J. Lyons

VAN METER, Iowa - Louis J. Lyons, 67, of Van Meter, formerly of Macarthur, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2001 at his home.

Born Oct. 24, 1933 at Hot Coal, he was the son of the late John A. Lyons Sr. and Winnie Cook Lyons. He was a veteran of the Korean War and was a retired funeral director. He attended Saint Frances DeSales Catholic Church in Beckley. He was a former Alderman in the town of Grain Valley, Mo., and was a life member of the V.F.W. and the D.A.V.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Mary Elizabeth Wallace; and two brothers, George R. Lyons and William W. Lyons.

He is survived by one daughter, Susan Lynn Doyel and husband, Chris of Grain Valley; three brothers, John A. Lyons Jr. and wife, Joyce of Independence, Kan., Joseph F. Lyons and wife, Helen of Eugene, Ore., and James C. Lyons and wife, Doreen of Wirtz, Va., formerly of Pineville; two sisters, Emma Louise Lyons of Beckley, and Patricia Parker and husband, John of Hollywood, Fla.; one sister-in-law, Janet Lyons; and five grandchildren, Jessica, Brittney, Caitlen, Shelby, and Dakota.

Funeral services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Rowland H. Bailey Funeral Chapel of Bailey-Kirk Funeral home in Princeton with the Rev. Larry Dyer officiating. Interment will follow at the Oakwood Cemetery, Princeton where military rites will be conducted by American Legion Post 175 of Bradshaw, V.F.W. Post 1144 of Ieager and the Mercer County Veterans Council. Friends may call at the funeral home from 6-8 p.m. today.

The following is Louis' autobiography:

Louis was the nineth and youngest son born to John A. and Winnie Cook Lyons at Hot Coal, Raleigh County, West Virginia. He attended schools in Raleigh County and Beckley. On Oct 24, 1950, his seventeenth birthday, he enlisted in the US Army. He arrived at the 24th Infantry Division north of Seoul Korea, at the age of 17 years and 4 months old. He was one of the youngest American soldiers in Korea at that time. During his last few months of duty in Korea he was assigned to the 17th Field Artillery, known as the Persuaders because of their 8" Howitzers that wrecked havoc on the North Koreans and Chinese. After 10 years of service he was discharged in 1960.

Louis was a country music diskjockey for eight years in Charleston, WV. He, then, spent the next twenty-five years in the funeral business in Florida, before leaving to become a representative of a national manufacturer of embalming fluid.

On May 11, 1963 he married Amelia Danello. They had one daughter Susan. He had five grandchildren. During the 1990's, he lived in Grain Valley, Jackson County, Missouri, where he was a City Alderman. Louis' hobby was politics. He researched the life of President Harry Truman, from President Truman's birth in Lamar, Missouri to his death in 1972 in Independence, MO and the Jackson Democratic Club with Tom Pendergast that propelled the man from Missouri to the highest office in this land.

Louis was a 100% disabled veteran of the Korean War, and a lifetime member of the DAV and VFW. Late in life, he lived in Princeton, WV, moving there to care for his sister, Emma, who is in a nursing home from a stroke that left her paralyzed on one side and damaged her brain.

Louis had moved to Iowa just weeks before his death.