George Leon Tucker

George Leon Tucker passed away on Wednesday, June 22, in a local hospital. He was buried at Pinecrest Cemetary on Saturday, June 24. Mr. Tucker was 81 years old, a native and resident of Mobile, and longtime member of Tree of Life Christian Church (formally First Independent Methodist Church). He was a Cold War veteran of the US Army, where he was trained as a radar technician and served in this capacity in Germany and other locations. After leaving the Army, he worked as a contractor with RCA at radar tracking stations in Greenland and the Bahamas. He was on Grand Turk Island when Astronaut John Glenn splashed down nearby after making history as the first American to orbit the earth. It was as this time that Mr. Tucker was able to meet Col. Glenn as well as fellow Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Scott Carpenter. Mr. Tucker eventually returned to Mobile and worked as a radio repair technician for the L&N (now CSX) Railroad until he retired. He had a lifelong fascination with electronics, repairing TV’s and other household items for friends and family as a hobby, and building a satellite antenna before they were available commercially to the public. Mr. Tucker is preceded in death by his mother and father, Annie and George Tucker, his aunt and uncle, Edna and Claude DeLoach, and cousins Wes and Charles DeLoach. He is survived by his cousins, Mary D. Pettus of Mobile, and Joyce Swindle and Jean Clark of Selma, and other relatives.