Robert Warren, Jr.

Robert Warren Jr., patriot, father, husband, brother, grandfather and friends to many, passed away on 22 December 2014, after a lengthy illness at the age of 85. He was a long time resident of Memphis, TN. He was born in Trimble, TN, on 21 December 1929 and lived there until the age of twenty one, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a result of the Korean Conflict. He would go on to serve 20 years of distinguished service as a Combat Engineer, to include a combat tour in Vietnam where he earned the Bronze Star, which is the fourth highest individual military award. On his first oversees tour of service in Germany he met the love of his life and would marry his beloved wife Gertrude and enjoyed 59 years together. This marriage provided him with two step children that he raised as if they were his own flesh and blood. While on his third tour to Germany, he became affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and became a Scottish Rite Mason and remains a member of the Moslah Shriners from Fort Worth, TX. After he retired from the U.S. Army, he returned to Memphis, TN, and found a job that he loved as an R.O.T.C. instructor, first at Mitchell and then at Booker T. Washington High School. This labor of love lasted twenty years and he touched the lives of hundreds of students. After he finally retired, he remained active as a volunteer for hospitalized veterans, many of whom had no family or friends to visit them. He is reunited with his parents, Robert and Audrey Warren, his brother Frank Warren, his sister in-law Betty Warren and his brother in-law Roy Robinson. He is survived by his wife Gertrude, his two step-children, Herbert Bruse and Hildegard Rachford and a daughter Evelyn Sonnenstrahl who lives in Germany, brothers L. C. Warren and Ed Warren, sisters Mary Evelyn Robinson and Linda Faye Butler, numerous cousins, nephews, nieces and hundreds of close friends.