Roy Bower Billingsley

Roy Bower Billingsley age 98 of Fairfield, passed away November 1, 2017, at Parkview Care Center.

Visitation for family and friends will be from 5:00 pm to 7:00 p.m. Monday, November 6, 2017, at the Word of Life Lutheran Church in Fairfield.

Funeral services will be 10:00 am, Tuesday, November 7, 2017, at the Word of Life Lutheran Church in Fairfield with Pastors Chris Fiske officiating. Burial with military honors will be at the Glasgow Cemetery.

Memorials can be made to the Glasgow Cemetery or Education Foundation of Fairfield Public Schools. Cards and memorials can be sent to: Jennifer Anderson, 2360 Wintergreen Blvd., Lockridge, Iowa 52635

Roy was born on September 1, 1919, the son of Walter S. Billingsley and Cora Belle Bower Billingsley in the house on the family farm in Round Prairie Township where he lived his entire life. He attended Glasgow School then graduated from Lockridge High School in 1936.

He married Kathleen Linderson on August 24, 1944, in the First Augustana Lutheran Church in Lockridge. He enlisted in the US Navy in December of 1941 serving during WWII until October of 1945. He enlisted for radar training which included three months at Utah State College in Logan, Utah and six months at Treasure Island near San Francisco where he attained 1st Class Petty officer rank. He was sent to a Radar Range Station on Sanak Island, an Aleutian Island, for 18 months where he attained Chief Class Petty Officer rating. He was then transferred to the aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga and sent to the South Pacific for 13 months of duty. During that time the ship participated in the first air raids on Tokyo, Japan and in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Roy was honorably discharged from USN on September 27, 1945. After the war he returned to farming on the home farm.

During his lifetime he served on many county committees; a three-man committee to organize a Farmers Veteran Training School for Jefferson County, Federal Land Bank Farm Loan Committee, Jefferson County Board of Education for 20 years, Jefferson County Soil Conservation Board, Jefferson County Compensation Board, Jefferson County Farm Bureau Board, and Round Prairie Township Trustee. In 1958 he served as Vice Chair on the Board for Reorganizing Fairfield Community School District. He was also one of the founding investors in the S.E. Iowa Feeder Pig Inc. of Farmington. He was also a member of the First Augustana Lutheran Church serving as Treasurer for many years, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, USS Saratoga Association, Fairfield Golf and Country Club, and Abracadabra Club.

He was preceded in death by his wife, one daughter, Diane Kathleen Anderson, his parents, two sisters, Ruth (Clarence) Tracht and Mary Helen (Earl) Fickel.

He is survived by two daughters, Jennifer (Nelson) Anderson of Lockridge and Lisa (John) Reindl of Cedar Falls; four grandchildren, Libby (Jeff)Reindl Dassow of Wauwatosa, WI, Natalie (Sean) Reindl McChesney of Mason City, Mitch Anderson of Urbandale and Katelyn Anderson of Lockridge; and son-in-law Col. (Ret.) Rob Anderson of York Harbor, Maine.