Ouachita County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....BANKS, EARL ROLLAND May 9, 2009 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Gina Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006026 May 11, 2009, 1:33 pm News Star World - May 11, 2009 EARL ROLLAND BANKS Mulhearn Funeral Home Sterlington Road, Monroe, LA Memorial services for Mr. Earl Rolland Banks, 83, of Monroe, LA will be held at 2:00 PM Monday, May 11, 2009 in the chapel of Mulhearn Funeral Home, Sterlington Rd. in Monroe with Rev. Larry Stafford officiating. Dad was born in Gillet, AR on September 4, 1925. After Pearl Harbor, he left home in Transylvania, LA to work as a welder in the Higgins ship yard in New Orleans, building landing craft for use in the Allied invasion of WW II. He lied about his age in order to join the U. S. Army at age 16 and volunteered for infantry combat duty. He landed on the Normandy beaches in a Higgins landing craft and fought with the Third Army under the command of Gen. George Patton from the hedge rows, through France and into the Ardennes Forrest where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge before meeting the Russian Army in Czecklosovakia. After the war, Dad returned to Transylvania, where in 1946, he met and married the love of his life, Lillian "Tootsie" Colvin. After losing everything they had in a house fire, they moved to Ouachita Parish in 1959. During his lifetime, he worked as a welder, pipe-fitter, farmer, home builder and real estate broker. He loved to "piddle" with fixing things whether broken or not and always enjoyed talking to people. He was fiercely independent and saw the world through the eyes of the common man. He loved animals of all kinds. No human or animal ever went hungry around Dad. The joy of his life was his wife, children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters. He will be missed dearly by his family who he unselfishly served his entire life. He was, indeed, a loving, generous and truly devoted husband, father, son, brother, and grandfather. Dad was preceded in death by his father and mother, John Hyram Banks and Edith Mae McDaniel Banks, three older sisters, Ida Mae Banks Munson, Mary Lucille Banks Kile and Betty Bernice Banks Masterson. Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Lillian; daughter, Paula Banks and Ken Smolsky of Destin, FL; son, Sedric and wife, Wanda McConkey Banks of Monroe; grandchildren, S. Hutton Banks and Harrison O. Banks; step-grandchild, J. Kyle McConkey and wife, Lindsey; two brothers, Elmer M. Banks and wife, Frances Naff Banks of Drury, MO, Charles Hebert Banks and Charlotte Ober Banks of Farmerville, LA; two sisters, Bethel Banks Williams and husband, Billy Don Williams of West Monroe and Perlene Banks Hice of Monroe; numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews. Visitation will be from 1:00 PM until service time Monday, May 11, 2009 at Mulhearn Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home or to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Family would like to give special thanks to Dr. Jacquelyn Carter at the Veterans Administration Clinic, Jessica Graham of Hospice Compassus, and to the PeGee's Breakfast Group Additional Comments: From Mulhearn Funeral Home Website In Loving Memory Earl Rolland Banks 09/04/1925 - 5/9/2009 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/obits/b/banks194nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/lafiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb