Buddy Franklin McLeroy

Buddy was born on July 8, 1926, in a log house on his family’s farm on Prospect Mountain in Cullman County, Alabama, to Clyde Obert McLeroy and Nettie Tubbs McLeroy. Always a hard worker, as a child and teenager Buddy delivered newspapers on a mule, plowed behind a horse, mined coal, and worked in a saw mill.

At the age of 16, Buddy left home without telling his parents and joined the Navy, changing the date of his birth in his Bible and paying a man to pose as his father and give permission for him to enlist. Over the next two years, Buddy served as a signalman on a destroyer and was a combat veteran of World War II. From his post aboard the USS Hilary P. Jones, Buddy had a bird’s eye view of the surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

After the war, Buddy returned to Cold Springs High School, where he fell in love with Cleo Lott at first sight. He and Cleo graduated in May 1947 and married the next month. Buddy attended Jacksonville State Teachers College on the GI bill by day and shoveled wet sand in a pipe shop at night but quit during his senior year to take a job with South Central Bell Telephone Company, where he retired after 38 years without ever having refused an opportunity to work overtime. In his spare time, Buddy enjoyed working on his cattle farm, tinkering in his shop, reading history books, and traveling with his family.

Buddy was preceded in death by his parents, his son Ronald Keith McLeroy, his brother Clyde Jack McLeroy, and his sister, Toni McLeroy Byars. He is survived by his wife Cleo, to whom he was absolutely devoted for 69 years; his grandson Todd McLeroy and his wife Kathryn; his granddaughter Dana Schoenbachler and her husband Matt; and six greatgrandchildren, Meghan McLeroy, Adam Schoenbachler, Benjamin Schoenbachler, Molly McLeroy, Sarah Schoenbachler, and Myles McLeroy.

Moss Service Funeral Home Directing.

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