Col. Eugene A. Sample, Jr. (Ret.)

Eugene Adolphus Sample, Jr., 88, of Birmingham, AL, went to be with the Lord on March 1, 2021. He will be remembered as a beloved husband, a good father, an enthusiastically patriotic Veteran of the U.S. Army, and especially as "Mr. Bunny" to all who loved him.

A Service of Remembrance for "Mr. Bunny" Sample will be at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at Ridout's Southern Heritage Chapel, Pelham, Alabama. The gravesite committal service will be at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday at Alabama National Cemetery, Montevallo.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Philadelphia Baptist Church, 3001 Pump House Road, Birmingham, AL 35243, www.pbchurch.org.

"Bunny" was a tireless church worker and volunteer, and a taxi driver for all in need. He was predeceased by his parents, Eugene Sr. and Pearl Henley Sample; and sister, Mary Pearl Sample Barlowe.

Survivors include "Bunny's" wife, Norma Whitson Sample; daughter, Debbie Sample Sims (Lee); son, Trey Sample (Sue); and grandchildren, Grant Sims and Blake Sims.

"Bunny" was born on June 5, 1932 in Orrville, Dallas County, Alabama. He was born in the house across the road from the Orrville High School. During his growing up years, he lived at various locations in Dallas County: Martin Station, Marion Junction, Carlowville, and East Selma, finally settling down in 1938 at 1115 Church Street in Selma. This house was adjacent to the Dallas County Road and Bridge Department yard, where Sample Sr. worked as a shovel and equipment operator. He worked at this job until 1950 at which time he started a land clearing, dam construction and farm drainage company, doing

work for area farmers. He operated this company until November 1956, when he had a major, disabling stroke.

"Bunny's" mother, Pearl Sample, was a lady of many talents: She canned vegetables from the garden, made slip covers for furniture, and made drapes and curtains for many homes in central Alabama in and around Selma. During World War II, she worked at Craig Field, a U.S. Air Force maintenance and flight training center, in the battery shop. In later years, she finished her Bachelor Degree and Master Degree in Education and taught in the Selma School System at Tremont and Francis Thomas Schools, retiring in 1977. During this time, while obtaining her degrees and working, she cared for her husband who had been an invalid from 1956 until his death in January 1969.

As you can see, "Bunny" grew up in a work environment. During his younger years, it was his duty to bring in the wood and coal for the stove and fireplaces (no central heat). His family grew their own vegetables, raised chickens, and even had a cow which "Bunny" milked. They churned clabbered milk for butter and buttermilk used for cooking and drinking. "Bunny's" daddy would purchase a young pig and have it penned up at a friend's place until time to butcher during a cold period in the fall of the year. Once the hog was killed and cleaned, it was time to process the meat by making sausage, which "Bunny's" mother would fry and can in jars with the grease poured over it to have for future use. The bacon and hams were salt cured then liquid smoked for flavor.

After the war, a freezer locker plant began operation in Selma. "Bunny's" daddy started buying a steer

from a local farmer and the family would kill and dress the steer in the field, then carry the beef quarters to the locker plant, where it was cut into steaks, roast, and ground meat, and placed in a rented locker.

Though there were many duties and chores around the house to be done, "Bunny's" mother always made sure that he and his older sister, Mary Pearl Sample, attended school. They attended Dallas Academy Elementary School and had many good teachers, who made sure they learned and kept out of trouble. There were grades one through six. The children walked to school every day hot or cold, sometimes in the rain because their parents left for work very early. The children also walked home, where the maid Estell would have snacks prepared. Then the children's chores would begin and were finished before Daddy came home.

As "Bunny" progressed in education in junior high school, there were many teachers who influenced his life. Mrs. Reid, the science teacher, permitted hands-on and live science projects such as snakes, which "Bunny" brought to school on some occasions. Ms. Lowe, another teacher, taught him to tumble and not break his neck or back in the process.

"Bunny" entered A.G. Parrish High (AGPHS) in 1946 and tried to study hard but could not match the grades made by his sister Mary Pearl and two older female cousins. While at AGPHS, he played some basketball (B team) and football in his junior and senior years until he received an elbow in practice which fractured his upper jaw just below his nose. When he came back to school, Miss Landon Hall thought he was a new student because his face and nose were so swollen. That ended his football career.

During those high school years, "Bunny" held many jobs in addition to completing the daily chores at home. He delivered the Selma Times Journal newspaper from Water Avenue along Lauderdale Street to the Southern Railroad, about 100 papers. He also worked as counter man at Selma Steam Laundry, and at Oliver Cleaners he was delivery man and past due accounts collector. He worked several years at Selma Ice and Fuel as office manager and ice sales from the platform; the last job of this nature was at Crystal Ice Company where he worked several summers. There, he sold ice, cold beer, and watermelons during the summer. Crystal Ice sold ice wholesale to truck retailers, to the company's own ice route sales people, and to companies such as Barton Ice Co. of Uniontown, AIabama.

The Crystal Ice job paid "Bunny" $25.00 per week for 10 hours of work per day, seven days a week. He thought this was big wages for a high school kid in the time period of 1947 to 1950. The job at Selma Ice was obtained from Walter Henley, who was his mother's brother who was staying with them to finish his high school education after his duty in the U.S. Navy in the submarine service during the war.

Upon high school graduation, "Bunny" applied for entrance into Auburn University (API) and was accepted. He enrolled in the Department of Forestry. During his college years, he worked with Auburn

Bowling Alley, Auburn Printing Shop, and as maintenance man for the girls' dorm for the Dean of

Women two years. An additional job he worked was with Daddy in his land clearing, dam construction

and drainage business during summer or school breaks. These jobs provided some spending money

and paid for school supplies.

In Summer 1954 (June to September), "Bunny" worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. This job paid better than most and entailed boundary line marking, timber marking, and road location. He was the only person working out of the Ranger Station there. There was no charge for the food, but he had to shop for it and cook it himself. He slept in a tent behind the station.

"Bunny" received a degree in Forest Management from Auburn in December 1954. Through ROTC, he had been Commissioned a 2Lt U.S. Army Armor branch in June 1954 and after his graduation in

December, he reported to Ft. Knox, Kentucky for two years of Active Duty with the Army. He was assigned to AOB6 1955 (Armor Officer Basic) for more training. This training was completed in April 1955 and he was assigned to an Armor Training Regiment that conducted AIT (packet platoon) in Armor operations at platoon and company level operations. This training included Armor tactics, gunnery, map reading, tank maintenance, and other military subjects.

In late 1955, he was selected to be an umpire in an FTX, Operation Sagebrush at Camp Polk, Louisiana. This operation lasted until December 1955. He remained as a company XO until selected to head the.

Gunnery Section of the Regimental Instructor Group, this position he retained until he was released from

Active Duty in December 1956.

An important event which occurred while at Auburn was when "Bunny" met and later married Norma Jean

Whitson of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Robert L. Whitson and Effie L. Smith Whitson. "Bunny" and Norma dated off and on at Auburn, but did not get into a serious courtship until he was on Active Duty at Ft Knox when he drove at least once a month to Auburn or Chattanooga to see her on weekends. In April 1955 he asked her to marry him, and she declined until I said I loved her, which I did. We were married on July 16, 1955. Being young of age, she had to get her mother to sign to obtain a marriage license in Tennessee. She also had to agree to finish college before her parents would agree to the union.

During their marriage, they lived at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Vine Grove, Kentucky, Ft. Knox, Selma, and finally Birmingham, Alabama. Norma and "Bunny" had two children, Deborah Kaye born in Ft. Knox on October 16, 1956 and Eugene A. "Trey" Sample III born in Birmingham on September 20, 1965. Debbie married Lee Sims on June 7, 1980. They have two sons, Grant born October 18, 1990 and Blake born January 24, 1995. The family lives in Holiday, Florida. Trey is married to Sue Kwon and they are stationed at present in Germany with the U.S. Army.

Upon release from Active Duty at Ft. Knox, Norma, Debbie, and "Bunny" packed up our household

furniture and waited for a storage company to pick it up. We hooked a U-Haul trailer to our 1954 Ford and drove to Chattanooga to visit Norma's parents. While there, Norma's uncle, Thomas M. "Bill" Whitson Sr. died of a heart attack. After his funeral, they departed for Selma to stay with "Bunny's" parents at 1115 Church Street until they could find an apartment to rent. They settled into an apartment on Summerfield Road. They later had a small house built in the Lazy Acres Subdivision off Summerfield Road about five miles out of Selma.

"Bunny" recalled, "I assisted my Mother in running my Father's construction business from January 1957 until October 1958. This was one reason I got released from Active Duty, as Daddy was disabled due to the stroke in November 1956.

"While in Selma, I wanted to continue my military career and complete my six-year obligation. I joined an Alabama National Guard unit in Camden, Alabama about 40 miles south of Selma. This unit was an Artillery unit (4.2 mortar) so I was requested to enroll in Artillery courses to become qualified as an Artillery officer.

"In late Summer 1958, after a bad year in the construction business due to rain and no working capital, I decided to seek employment within the forest industry. I obtained the names of several companies from

Auburn Forestry Department and applied. I accepted an offer from U.S. Pipe & Foundry Company in

Birmingham. This company had a large land base and a new forestry department. I was the district forester for the counties of Jefferson, Blount, Shelby, and Walker. Additional work was required at the general office and with other districts. The primary business of U.S. Pipe was coal, coke, coke byproducts, cast iron pipe, and blast furnace operations for the manufacture of pig iron for internal use

and outside sales on the open market.

"The forestry department was responsible for management in the properties in support of these operations. There were contract sawmills, which cut timbers and lumber for the underground coal mines, pipe shops, furnaces, and other plant operations as needed. We leased the company lands to individuals who wanted it for farming or pasture. Some house sites were leased due to squatters who had built on company land. The primary duty of the Forestry Dept. of U.S. Pipe was to manage the land by locating and marking the company's property lines, doing timber stand improvement, suppressing wild fires, conducting timber sales, and planting loblolly pine seedlings on open land not under lease to others. We also oversaw the sawmill operations and delivered special orders as needed. Land clearing, along with fire lane and access road construction, were done in each district. The cleared land was replanted to loblolly pine to replace scrub hardwood.

"In October 1976, I left U.S. Pipe to seek other employment. Since I had joined the Alabama National Guard while in Selma, I sought a National Guard unit in Birmingham. The 167th Inf. Bn. at Graymont Armory had a Tank Company at Leeds, Alabama about 15 miles east of Birmingham that was about to lose its company commander, a Cpt. Claude Sawyer. I had known him from Ft. Knox. About two months after he left, I was given command.

"Later in the 87th Maneuver Area Command, a U.S. Army Reserve unit, I held various positions and progressed upward in rank from Captain to Colonel in 1978. In November 1984, I retired with 30 years of military service."