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IN LOVING MEMORY OF Marion Earl Painter

Marion Earl

Marion Earl Painter Profile Photo

Painter

June 6, 2015

Marion Earl Painter's Obituary

Marion Earl Painter, 94, formerly of Plumville, died June 6, 2015, in Mesa, Ariz. Mr. Painter was born in 1920, in Plumville to James Harman and Teressa Ione (nee Condron) Painter. He graduated from Plumville High School and on Aug. 12, 1942, married his high school sweetheart, Florence Hill of Home. The following day he received his draft notice and was inducted into the Army on Aug. 22, 1942. During World War II, Mr. Painter served in the 8th Air Force as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress with the 91st Bombardment Group, 401st Bombardment Squadron, based in Bassingbourn, England. On March, 22, 1944, his B-17 was shot down during a bombing raid on Berlin. After bailing out, he was captured and sent to the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft VI in East Prussia and later Stalag Luft IV in Kiefeheide, in the Pomerania district of Germany. As the Russian army advanced on the German lines, the POW camps were evacuated in February 1945 and Mr. Painter and thousands of other Allied POWs were put on a forced march to the west. The march, which lasted until April 1945, later came to be known among the survivors as The Black March, The Death March Through Germany, or simply The March. An estimated 3,500 Allied POWs died as a result of the march. Near death, Sgt. Painter was liberated by U.S. troops of the 1st Army's Timberwolf Division on April 26, 1945. Following the war, Mr. Painter started a cabinet-making business in Plumville, but in the mid-1950s, he re-enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He served as a crew chief of a Mace missile site in West Germany for three years during the height of the Cold War, including the period of the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He returned to the U.S. in 1963 and served the remainder of his time in the Air Force as an instructor in the Minuteman missile system at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. Upon retiring from the Air Force as a master sergeant in 1972, he returned to Plumville and established Painter's Appliance Center. Mr. Painter was a charter member of the Plumville Lions Club; a Mason, raised in the Rantoul, Ill., Lodge in 1958; made a 32nd degree Mason in the Danville, Ill., Scottish Rite Lodge in 1966; transferred to Benjamin Franklin Lodge No. 753; was past master of Benjamin Franklin Lodge in 1988; was High Priest of William S. Daugherty Royal Arch Chapter No. 313; was a Knight Templar; belonged to Jaffa Shrine and the Indiana County Shrine Club; was a member of 91st Bomb Group Memorial Association and Ex-POWs; was a founding member and president of Ex-POWs Southern Allegheny Region. He is survived by three daughters, Dovie Bryant of Mesa, Ariz.; Kathy Morris of Hayes, Va.; and Connie Hartig of Flagstaff, Ariz.; three sons, James of Belton, Texas; John of Falls Church, Va.; and Paul of Parker, Colo.; 10 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Florence. Visitation will be held on Saturday from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM where a funeral service will be held at 12:00 PM at the Bowser-Minich Funeral Home, Indiana, with Reverend Kathryn Ward Stear officiating. Interment will be made at the Smicksburg Cemetery.

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