 West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Texas   Dorothy A. Nicholson 12 June 1924 - 13 December 1997 Banks E. Nicholson, Jr. 31 August 1920 - 20 July 2013  Transylvania Times (Brevard, North Carolina) August 15, 2013 Banks Ely Nicholson, Jr. "Bill", 92, died in his sleep July 20, 2013 at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. where he had lived since 1998. He was born in Brevard, August 31, 1920 to Banks E. and May Quiett Nicholson. HIs parents, brothers, Jack and Edwin Nicholson, and 2nd wife, Dorothy Mendell Nicholson, preceded him in death. After graduating from Brevard High School, he joined the US Army Air Corps. He served in World War II in the Pacific Theater Red Raiders 22nd Bombardment Group Squadron, "The Marauders," served in the Berlin Airlift and retired from the US Air Force with an honorable discharge in 1962. His narratives of World War II experiences are in the Veterans History Project Collection of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. While serving in the U.S.A.F., he took classes through the University of Maryland and after retirement, returned to Brevard and attended Brevard College. He worked at the former DuPont plant in Cedar Mountain and was canteen manager of the American Legion in Brevard. In 1969 he relocated to Hayward, California and in 1973 remarried and moved to Sherman, Texas, where he lived until 1998. During those years he enjoyed camping and traveling in 49 states. From the time he was in the military he exercised daily "to be as healthy as possible when I die." In later years he, although unable to walk, he navigated himself in his wheelchair to continue strenghtening exercises in the gym at AFRH. At age 79, he learned to use a computer and his favorite daily activity then became playing FreeCell and Hearts. Staff at the AFRH shared that they will miss his smiles and that he was one who "lived to live life." On his daily phone calls to his daughter, he would say, "I'm as happy as if I had good sense." Surviving are his daughter, Betty Llyn Nicholson Shook and husband, Bill, of Hendersonville; granddaughter, Trina Shook Hendricks and husband, Jon, of Penrose; grandson, Kevin D. Shook and wife, Shawna, of Brevard; 5 great-grandson, Gavin, Logan and Jamie Bingham; Zane and Larson Shook; step-great-grandson, Jonathan Hendricks; sister, Nancy Ann Nicholson Dorner of Peoria, Arizona; and first wife, Betty Jean Duclos Teague of Brevard. A memorial service was held August 28, 2013 at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. Interment was in West Hill Cemetery in Sherman, Texas. West Hill Cemetery Elaine Nall Bay ©2013 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |