Hal William Lamb Jr.
Hal William Lamb, Jr. died at age 93 on June 13, 2013 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Born May 25, 1920 in Chattanooga, he was a member of The Greatest Generation and was a star football player at Central High School in Chattanooga, accepting a scholarship to Georgia Tech in 1938. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps. He married Eleanor S. Lamb in February of 1942. During World War II, he was a B-17 pilot based in Nuthampstead, England with the 8th Air Force. From there, he flew bombing missions over Germany and France, including D-Day. After the war, he served in the Strategic Air Command flying B-52s. Ultimately reaching the rank of colonel, his final overseas assignments was in Brussels, Belgium with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the central command of NATO military forces. After 30 years of service, he retired from the U.S. Air Force in San Antonio in 1971.
After 27 years of marriage, his wife died in 1969. In 1971, he married Eleanor Hill Wilson and they lived in San Antonio, enjoying many years of travel and memorable times with their large families and many friends. In 2004, they moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to be closer to their children.
He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Hal Sr. and Cecil Bobo Lamb; sister, Betty Lamb Moudy; brother, Daniel Lamb; first wife, Eleanor Stafford Lamb; and youngest son, Richard Lamb.
He is survived by his wife, Eleanor Hill Lamb; sons and daughters-in-law, Hal W. Lamb III and Lee, and Daniel S. Lamb and Toni; his stepchildren and spouses, Katherine Wilson Singleton and John, Dorothy Wilson Chappell and John B. Wilson Jr. and Ashley; 14 grandchildren and spouses, Bill and Wendy, Drew and Laurie, Karen and Tom, Rob and Mary Alice, Matthew, Aaron and Teri, Rachel and Patrick, Caroline and Luke, Jessie, Phil, Wade, Eleanor, John Thomas and Lucius; 19 great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.
A morning burial service is planned for October 26 in Dunlap, located in Hal’s beloved Sequatchie Valley, with a memorial service afterward at Tom Faucette’s farm in Dayton.
Online condolences can be made to the Lamb family by visiting www.walkersfuneral service.com.
Walker Funeral Home of Chapel Hill was in charge of arrangements.
