William “Bill” Huston Cassady, 93, of New Orleans, LA passed away unexpectedly on April 9, 2018 at Slidell Memorial Hospital. Bill was born on June 8, 1924 to the late Helen Murphy Cassady and the late Huston William Cassady and traced his family tree in Louisiana back to 1724 with the arrival of his ancestor Conrad Fredrick from Rothenberg ob der Tauber, Germany.
Bill moved from Louisiana at the age of eleven and resided with his mother, brothers John and Leonard and sister Louise in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a few years. He left Pennsylvania to serve in the Civilian Conservation Corps and there discovered his life-long love for nature. When WWII started, he got permission from his mother to enlist in the Navy at the age of 17. Bill trained as a LCVP Assault Craft Coxswain (Higgins Boat) and on his 18th birthday his ship, the USS Frederick Funston (APA 89), sailed from port in the United States en-route the Mediterranean Sea. While in the European Theater the Funston participated in combat operations at Salerno and Anzio, Italy. The Funston left the Mediterranean and redeployed to the Pacific Theater and was instrumental in the landings at Saipan, Iwo Jima and Guam. Bill served on the Funston from April 1943 until September 1945 and left the ship with the rank of Coxswain Third Class credited with six combat landings. When Bill was older his friends would encourage him to “go take a cruise for fun” and Bill’s response always was “I’ve sailed around the world twice and that’s just enough!”.
After WWII ended Bill became a Navy Reservist and saw action again in the Korean Conflict providing naval gunfire support to the Marines at Wonsan. After Korea, Bill left the Navy and, in a few years, found his way back to Louisiana. He worked at Chevron in New Orleans as an aircraft mechanic and during that time he joined the Louisiana Army Air Guard as a helicopter mechanic. During this time he met and married the lovely Josephine Lovretich, and they enjoyed a happy life together in the city and travelling to special places like the New York World’s Fair. Josephine passed away unexpectedly in May 1986.
Bill was the consummate volunteer – he worked tirelessly at the Audubon Nature Center until it was closed by Hurricane Karina in 2005. He enjoyed sharing his knowledge of the outdoors with youngsters as a Boy Scout Leader and was an expert at fly tying. But his true passion was serving as a volunteer at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. Bill was there when the doors opened on June 6, 2000 and his last day volunteering was March 20, 2018. Bill’s station was the Higgins Landing Craft on the first floor of the main museum building. Bill was part of the team that built the landing craft for use in the museum, and he logged 5,994 volunteer hours at his station. He is listed as a member of the coveted Volunteer Hall of Fame at the museum.
Bill’s life encompassed many endeavors – warrior, skilled craftsman, scholar - but most of all he was a gentleman who will be missed by his friends and family.
A Funeral Service will be held on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home at 2 PM. Visitation will begin at 1 PM.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National WW2 Museum at 945 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70130.
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