Submitted by
Ken Gates
Published in the Waco Tribune-Herald on 12/8/2008
Eugene Cosby
July 9, 1923 – December 6,
2008
Eugene Cosby, 85, of Waco, went to be with the Lord, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, at a local hospital. Services will be 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9 at Connally Compton Funeral Directors with the Rev. Terry Cosby officiating. Interment with military honors will follow at Waco Memorial Park. Visitation will be 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, at the funeral home. Mr. Cosby was born July 9, 1923, in Rosebud, to parents, Virgil Carter and Medora Loring Collier Cosby. He was a veteran of WWII serving in the US Navy as a Gunners Mate 2nd Class aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Minneapolis. He participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea which included the Battle of Surigao Strait on Oct. 25, 1944. Following his military service he married Olivia Smith on June 12, 1946, in Houston. Mr. Cosby was a retired sheet metal worker and recently received his sixty year pin from Sheet Metal Workers Local #54. He and his brothers were avid hunters and fishermen and he was known for his woodworking skills and love of bluebonnets. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather who was very proud of his children and grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by three brothers, Joe Ben, Paul and David Cosby. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Olivia of Waco; three children, Ken Allen Cosby and wife, Leslie of Bastrop, Michael Gene Cosby and wife, Luz "Ging" of Waco, and Daphene RenŽ Atkins and husband, Curtis of Thorndale; five brothers, Rufus Cosby of Auburn, Calif., Lee Cosby and wife, Geneva of Mertens, John Cosby and wife, Lois of Alvarado, Wayne Cosby and wife, Lanette of Grand Prairie, and Tim Cosby and wife, Janie of Mertens; and six grandchildren, Luke, Joseph and Bradley Cosby and Jillian, Olivia and Levi Atkins. Pallbearers will be Luke Cosby, Joseph Cosby, B.J. Cosby, J.D. Waits, Johnny Lee Cosby and Fred Johnson. Honorary bearers will be Levi Atkins and two very special friends from the Navy, Morris Moore and Charlie Fant. The family requests memorials to Hillcrest Hospice.
