A visitation will be held at Wylie-Baxley Funeral Home in Merritt Island, FL on Saturday, November 3, 2018 from 2-4PM with a service at 4PM. After which, Mr. Bagby will be transported to Evansville, Indiana for a service at Alexander Funeral home on Saturday, November 10 with a visitation from 2-4PM. Colonel Bagby will then be cremated and his remains sent to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Hersh was born to the late Walter S. Bagby and Pauline Moss on March 13, 1929 in Evansville, IN. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 31, 1951 and took basic training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. He was selected to attend the Officer Training Course at Ft. Benning, GA and graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant on January 30, 1953. After serving in Korea he was assigned to Hawaii with the 25th infantry Division where he met and married June Saley. Together they traveled the world during his more than 26 years of service. He received his B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University of Omaha, Nebraska. Besides serving twice in Korea, he served in Germany, Vietnam and at the Pentagon. At the Pentagon he headed a task force to develop the Army Total Force document that drove a major realignment of forces between the Active, Reserves and the National Guard for the DOD. He completed the Command and General Staff College short course at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and the National Air War College at Maxwell AF Base, Montgomery, AL. He was honored by being inducted into the OCS Infantry Hall of Fame at Ft. Benning, GA in February 1976. During the years of his service, Hersh either led or commanded every echelon of structure from infantry squad up to and including a Mechanized Infantry Brigade of some 5000 soldiers. After serving as Senior Army Advisor to the Adjutant General for the State of Georgia he retired as a full Colonel in the summer of 1976 and joined his family in St. Petersburg, FL and later lived in Pinellas Park.
He had an upholstery business and laundromat. He loved singing and became active in karaoke and stage productions, which he continued to do after he and June moved to Summit Greens in Clermont, FL in 2000. In 2016 he and June moved to Merritt Island, FL.
In addition to his wife June of 63 years, Hersh is survived by his son Steven and his wife Rose, son Gregory and his wife Nora, son Michael and his wife Kellee, daughters Brenda Baldwin and Candace Cartwright. Grandchildren include Lisa Schuh, Christina Kubycheck, Nicholas Bagby, John Jason Winterman, Brian Winterman, Beth Harp, Justin Rodenberg, Brandon Rodenberg, Nicole Bagby, Alex Bagby, Courtney Bagby, McKenna Bagby, Morgan Bagby, Jaime Bagby and 20 great grandchildren. Hersh was the sixth son of a family of seven boys and one girl and has no surviving brothers or sisters but has countless nieces, nephews and cousins. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations to be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.
