Joseph Bailey Booth

Joseph Bailey “J.B.” Booth, Lieutenant Colonel US Air Force (Retired), age 92, died Monday, October 1, at his residence in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Services will be held at 11am Friday at Demaine Funeral Home in Alexandria. Mr. Booth was preceded in death by his eldest daughter, Carolyn Fritz (H. Joseph), and his brothers, Edward and Alfred Duval of Mobile, Alabama. Survivors include his wife of 67 years, June-Mary Booth; his children, Helen Booth of Winter Park, FL, Josephine Scott (Thomas) of Fredericksburg, VA, Sharon Booth of Raleigh, NC, Robert Booth (Fran) of Sumerduck, VA, and Cynthia Laporta (Eugene) of Washington, DC; his grandchildren, David McGee, Alan Booth, Virginia Booth, Morgan Fritz, Joseph Fritz, Marion Scott, Robert Scott, Meghan Laporta, and Peter Laporta; and his great-grandchildren, Kaylee Booth, Kayden Booth, Kayson Booth, Liam McGee, Riley McGee, Lilian Bowman, and Anna Fritz. Mr. Booth was born February 12, 1920, in Mobile, to Adela and Joseph Booth. He received a B.A. in Business Administration for the University of Alabama, and an M.B.A. from Xavier University. Mr. Booth enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941, serving in England and Germany during and after WWII. In 1945 he married June-Mary Peacock in Wantage, England. Over the subsequent decades, he served tours in the Air Force in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam, and was stationed in Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia. Following his retirement in 1974, Mr. Booth returned to his business education to open Booth Feeds, a pet food and livestock feed business, at Tyson’s Corner in Lorton. He expanded his company to six locations, and ran it until his retirement in 2005. He was loved and respected by his many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and though he lived a long life marked by accomplishments, he will be greatly missed.