Lt. Colonel Lloyd Ernst Mielenz, Jr., US Army (Retired)

Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd E. Mielenz, Jr., US Army (Retired) was a decorated officer and a steadfast son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, and citizen volunteer. He was born in Davenport, Iowa and died at the age of 98 in Wake Forest, North Carolina. His parents were Lloyd E. Mielenz, a US Military Academy at West Point graduate and career Army officer, and Penelope Sunbeam Pendergrass. His mother died when he was three years old; his father remarried Maurine LaPell Gostin Ricker and together they reared Lloyd, Jr., his sister Penny, and stepsister Maurine. Lloyd’s early years were spent at Army postings including two years on Corregidor, Philippines where his father was chief engineer until families evacuated in March 1941 as war threatened. The Japanese captured his father in the Philippines in 1942; he was held a prisoner until the war ended in 1945. During this time Lloyd was a high school student in Macon, Georgia.

Lloyd graduated from West Point in June of 1950 as a Second Lieutenant. Soon after graduating he was deployed to Korea, where he was wounded in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir on November 28, 1950. Following his recovery, he continued his Army career with a variety of assignments, including: District of Columbia (battery commander of the first Nike Hercules site), Oklahoma (Fort Sill), Colorado (NORAD Command Space and Strategic Missile Analyst), Texas (Fort Bliss), and New Jersey (Fort Monmouth). He had overseas tours of duty to Germany, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In 1958, he married his beloved wife Margaret Jones Wood, originally from Campbell County, Virginia. They met on a double-date (Margaret was not his date) and he sent her holiday cards until they reconnected several years later. They reared three children (Lisa, Lloyd III, and Thelma) and were married 51 years. After he retired from the Army in 1978, the family moved to Raleigh where Lloyd worked as a quality engineer with Carolina Power and Light until retiring again in 1993.

In retirement, he was active in and served as president of the Army chapter of the Chosin Few, a group dedicated to honoring the veterans who endured the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in November-December of 1950. For more than twenty years, he volunteered with Raleigh AARP Tax-Aide to assist people in filing their taxes. For many years, he served as a precinct captain on Election Day. He and Margaret were long-term members of White Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Lloyd is survived by his daughters Lisa Worley (Jim) and Thelma Mielenz (Scott Stroup); grandchildren Johnathan Worley (Anna Grace), Benjamin Worley, Margaret Stroup, Kayleigh Mielenz, and great-grandson Roland Worley. Lloyd was preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Wood Mielenz (2010) and son, Lloyd E. Mielenz III (2020).

The family expresses gratitude to the staff of Brookdale Wake Forest Assisted Living for their kindness and support over the past three years.

A Witness to the Resurrection will be held at 2 pm Thursday, March 19, 2026 at White Memorial Presbyterian Church. Visitation will immediately follow the service at the church.

Memorial gifts may be made to: Habitat for Humanity of Wake County, 2420 Raleigh Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27604 or White Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1704 Oberlin Rd, Raleigh, NC 27608.

Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary’s Street, Raleigh is serving the Mielenz Family.