JACK BOB WADDINGTON, 80, passed away on Sept. 22,
2012 in Dallas, TX.
Jack was born Jan. 19, 1932, in Mingus, TX, at home,
the son of Lloyd & Eunice Waddington, attended by Dr.
J.T. Spratt. His grandparents were Sarah Addie Potter
& Bob Henry Stewart and Eli & Mary Smith Waddington of
Bosque County where they farmed. Jack’s grandfather Eli
came from England in 1869, at the age of 13 with his
parents and brothers. Jack’s great-grandfather, John
Waddington, who was a Texas pioneer in the Millsap
and Seymour area was shot in the back and killed in
1880 by a cattleman’s gunmen while he and some of his
children were attempting to settle land near Seymour,
TX. Jack’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side was
also a Texas pioneer, Dr. James Potter of Weatherford,
a circuit rider who rode through Indian territory to
visit his patients.
Jack, while living at Mingus, attended grades 1-7 at
Strawn Elementary School but moved at age 12, with
his family to Ranger, TX, in the summer of 1944, where
he attended the 8th grade and graduated from Hodges Oak
Park Elementary. He was also a graduate of Ranger High
School in the Class of 1949, Ranger Junior College in
1951 where he was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, and North
Texas State (BA-majors in English and Education), Denton.
Upon completion of his education at North Texas, he then
joined the U.S. Navy and entered into active duty when he
was assigned to the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School
at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1953. His first airplane
ride was on a commercial American Airline flight to
Boston, MA. He graduated from OCS in 1954, and was
commissioned as an Ensign. He was assigned to the U.S.
Naval Communication Station at the Ninth Naval District
Headquarters, Great Lakes, Illinois, where he served as
officer-in-charge of the major relay station and was also
responsible for the area’s classified library.
He applied for entry into the Navy’s flight training program
and was transferred to Pensacola, FL, in the summer of 1955
as a Lieutenant (junior grade), where he commenced flight
training. During the next 12 months he attended courses
at Sherman Field, Whiting Field, Saufley Field and Baron
Field.
In 1956, he married Mertice Joanne Brooks of Costa Rica and
Florida. They met while she was attending her last year at
Florida State University and they were married in Bradenton,
FL. They had three sons.
Upon completion of basic flight training in the Pensacola,
FL, he attended advanced, multi-engine, flight training at
NAS Hutchinson, Kansas where he received his Navy wings and
was designated as a Naval Aviator in 1956.
He was then assigned to the Airborne Early Warning Squadron
Fifteen (VW-15) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, with deploy-
ments to NAS Argentia, Newfoundland. Waddington was promoted
to Lieutenant in 1957.
His next tour was as a flight instructor at NAS Pensacola and
Whiting Field, FL, in Training Squadron Six (VT-6) 1959-1962.
There he was accepted as a USN (regular) officer. Next duty
was at VP-31, NAS North Island, San Diego, CA, where he
underwent seaplane training prior to being assigned to Patrol
Squadron Fifty (VP-50) at the Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni,
Japan. While in VP-50 he was designated a patrol plane commander
in a P5M Marlin anti-submarine seaplane and was promoted to
Lieutenant Commander in 1963.
From Japan he was assigned to the Naval War College at Newport,
Rhode Island, where he attended the Command and Staff course,
with graduation in 1966. He was assigned across Narragansett
Bay to the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CVS-9) home-ported at
NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island. He was the First Lieutenant
in charge of the deck force on the carrier where he qualified
as officer-of-the-deck underway. The carrier made a North
Atlantic training cruise and a Mediterranean cruise while he
was aboard.
In 1967, he was re-assigned to Training Squadron One (VT-1) at
Saufley Field as an instructor and later as the Administrative
Officer and was promoted to Commander.
He departed that duty in 1968 and reported to his next duty
on the staff of the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT)
at the Naval Station, Norfolk, VA. On this NATO staff he
served as the Director of Community Relations and was head
of the SACLANT NATO Briefing Team. He was awarded the Joint
Service Commendation Medal for meritorious service there.
Following six years in this job he moved down the hall for
his next assignment as Assistant U.S. Liaison Officer to
SACLANT on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Atlantic
Fleet (CINCLANT).
As his final tour in the U.S. Navy, Commander Waddington was
assigned to the staff of the Chief of Naval Air Training, NAS
Corpus Christi, TX, where he served as Public Affairs Officer.
After 26 years of service, he retired from the U.S. Navy in
1979.
During his Naval service as an aviator he completed: total
pilot hours: 4,034, total flight hours 5,265. 605 night
hours. 458 actual instrument hours, 276 simulated instrument
hours, 1,525 landings (sea and land).
Following his Naval service he moved to Dallas in 1980, where
he was employed by American Liberty Oil Company and the T.L.
Wynne family as office manager and purchasing agent before he
completely retired in 1988, but continued to live in Dallas.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Ranger,
an avid bridge player, involved with his Class of 1949 activities
and in the Ranger High School Exes. He did voluntary research
for the Ranger Exes Memorial web site.
He will be cremated and his ashes scattered near his birthplace
in Mingus in an area where he played as a child and only 18
miles from his beloved Ranger.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his former wife, Joanne
Brooks Waddington Averre and by his brother, L.S. Waddington
and sister, Joyce Waddington Short.
He is survived by his three sons: James Brooks Waddington and
daughter, Ashley Elizabeth of Parrish, FL; Jack Stewart
Waddington and his wife Susan and their daughter Emily Clair
of Yalaha, FL, and Airman Cristopher R. Waddington, at the
US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO; and David Lloyd
Waddington of Parrish, FL; and his great-granddaughter,
MacKenzie Waddington and his longtime friend, Clinton Nickoles
of Dallas, and his great love, his cat Zoni.
His three grandchildren, Chris, Ashley and Emily and great-
granddaughter, Mackenzie were always a great joy to him as
were Beverly and Steven Nickoles of Starkville, MS and
Nashville, TN.
At the time of his death, he had other living relatives that
he loved dearly, including his brother's children, Sandi and
Don and their children: his sister's son Robert Short and his
son and family; his first cousins, Patsy Ruth Hedrick & Dorisgean
and Loyd Williams. He was also survived by other cousins, many
of his classmates from the Class of 1949 who remained among his
best friends throughout his life and many other Ranger classmates,
Navy, Dallas, and other friends. More pics
PARENTS: LLOYD & EUNICE WADDINGTON resided in Ranger from 1944
until their deaths. They were the parents of Jack Waddington
(RHS-1949), and two older children; Lloyd Stanley, Jr. & Joyce
Waddington. The senior Waddingtons were married in Weatherford
in 1920. The couple lived in Mingus, TX prior to their marriage
and until "the move to Ranger in 1944. Lloyd was born in Millsap
on Dec. 25, 1889, and died in Ranger in 1976. He was an automobile
mechanic & later a pipe-fitter. Eunice Bell Stewart was born in
Weatherford in 1899, and died in Ranger in 1990. They resided
in Ranger at 710 Cypress. The photos were taken on the day of
their wedding & when they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Eunice Waddington was employed at the Crawford Oil City Pharmacy
Rexall Drug Store in Ranger for many years.
BROTHER: LLOYD STANLEY "L.S." WADDINGTON, JR., 80, a retired
rancher, died on July 16, 2002, with burial at Mount Marion
Cemetery.
Mr. Waddington was born in Mingus to Eunice S. & Lloyd Stanley
Waddington Sr. of Mingus & later Ranger. Mr. Waddington attended
school in Mingus & Strawn and attended the University of Texas at
Austin. He served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during
WWII, flying combat missions in the P-51 Mustang in the European
theater of operations where he was a member of the 15th AAF P-51
Mustang fighter group in Italy. He flew his first combat mission
over enemy territory as a member of a fighter escort with a high
altitude heavy bomber unit attacking railroad bridges in northern
Italy. He had attained the rank of captain when he was released
from duty at the war's end. He and his family lived a number of
years in Abilene where he was first employed by his cousin, Don
Waddington, as manager of Waddington's Ladies Apparel and later
he was manager of Ernest Grissom's department stores. While in
Abilene, he served a term as president of the Abilene Downtown
Association. He and Mrs. Waddington then moved to Odessa, where
he managed the Model Shop Department Stores, later purchasing the
stores and operating them until he closed them when he retired.
Upon retirement, they built a ranch home at their land south of
Strawn on the Strawn to Desdemona Highway where he continued to
ranch and farm for some years. He was a life member of the Masonic
Lodge in Gordon. His great love was his family, taking great
pride in his children and grandchildren. Next to family, he
loved the outdoors, hunting and fishing, as well as ranching
and farming. He was an avid bass fisherman.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 52 years,
Barbara Gailey Waddington of near Strawn; and his sister, Joyce
Waddington (Mrs. Robert Sterling) Short of Dallas. Survivors:
Son, Don Lloyd Waddington of Strawn and formerly of Fort Worth
and Weatherford; a daughter Sandi Garnett of Arlington; brother,
retired Navy Cmdr. Jack Waddington (RHS-1949) of Dallas; grand-
children, Jason Hart and Jeremy & Jared Garnett, all of Arlington,
and Terra Dawn Waddington of Springfield, Mo.; two great-grand-
children; and other loved relatives and friends.