Lamar Crawford,

Services for Lamar S. Crawford, Sr., 91, of Tyler, Texas will be held on Wednesday, December 28 at 3:30 pm at Stewart Family Funeral Home, Tyler with Dr. Paul Powell officiating. Burial will follow in Woodlawn Cemetery, El Dorado, Arkansas on Thursday, December 29 at 11:00 am under direction of Stewart Family Funeral Home. Mr. Crawford passed away Thursday, December 22, 2011 at Hospice of East Texas in Tyler. He was born November 19, 1920 in Union County, Arkansas to Roy and Zola Crawford and moved to the Tyler area in 1981. Mr. Crawford was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps throughout World War II, and was one of only thirteen Marines who survived while serving aboard the USS Arizona which was sunk in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. He continued to serve in various Marine air and ground units in the Pacific for the duration of the war and received an honorable discharge in 1946. He later served as a Commissioned Postal Inspector for the United States Postal Inspection Service for twenty years and retired in 1976 with 35 years combined government service. He was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, the National Association of Retired Postal Inspectors, and Green Acres Baptist Church. He was a 1939 graduate of El Dorado High School, El Dorado, Arkansas, and attended Chillicothe Business College, Chillicothe, Missouri, and a three year U.S. Postal Inspection Service Training Program in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Crawford was preceded in death by his parents, Roy and Zola Crawford; four brothers, James Carleton Crawford, John Roy Crawford, Billy Morris Crawford, and Donald Keith Crawford; and one sister, Mary Faye Crawford Allred. He was also preceded in death by two daughters, Cora Nan Crawford Strain and Julia Marguerite Crawford. Lamar is survived by his beloved wife of nearly 69 years, Mildred Munday Crawford of Tyler, Texas; and son and daughter in law, Lamar Jr. and Linda Crawford of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is also survived by a grandson, William Glenn Strain, Jr. of Dallas, Texas; granddaughter, Julia Strain Sipll of Plano, Texas; and several nieces and nephews. Visitation will be on Wednesday, December 28 at 2:30 pm, one hour prior to the 3:30 pm service, at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Hwy, Tyler, Texas. Memorials in honor of Lamar Crawford may be made to the Hospice of East Texas Foundation, 4111 University Blvd., Tyler, Texas 75701 or to an organization of your choice.

Lamar Crawford,

November 19, 1920 - December 22, 2011