Brooks W. "Buster" Lovelace, Jr. (Maj. Usaf, Ret.)

Brooks W. “Buster” Lovelace, Jr. (Maj. USAF, Ret.), 94, of Valdosta, died on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at Langdale Hospice House. Born in College Park, Ga on January 3, 1925, to the late Brooks White & Irene Amanda (Schilling) Lovelace, he had lived in the Valdosta area for the past 9 years. Growing up in Atlanta area, he went in his late teens to volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol at St. Simons Island, Georgia during World War II. In December of 2014, he and the other members of the Civil Air Patrol on St. Simons received the Congressional Gold Medal for their efforts during the war. He returned to Atlanta and graduated from Boys High School and then attended Embry-Riddle School of Aviation, and Flightway in Atlanta. In the years following the war, while he was working at an insurance company in Atlanta, he met the former Mary Elizabeth Youngblood, and they were married in 1948; they were married for 62 years prior to her death in 2010. He soon went into the U.S. Air Force and served first as a navigator in a B-52 bomber. He served during the Korean era and the Vietnam War. The Lovelace family followed him and moved to such locations as Del Rio, TX, Sacramento, CA, Maine, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, and Omaha, NE and Albany, GA. He primarily served in SAC- Strategic Air Command during the height of the Cold War. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1969 as a Major. After retirement, he served for many years as the District Scout Executive for the Chehaw Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in Albany. Following his career with the Boy Scouts, he worked for Rockwell Aircraft and Ayres Company, also in Albany, for several years.
Mr. Lovelace was always active in his community and his church. He served for many years on the Vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and at the soup kitchen at St. Paul’s. Always active with the Boy Scouts as an Eagle Scout and a recipient of the Silver Beaver award, he continued to volunteer on the Chehaw Council Executive Board. In Albany and Valdosta, he was an active member of the Kiwanis Club. Mr. Lovelace held a lifelong fascination of airplanes, loved woodworking and making toys and items for others, traveling with his wife all over the country, including travel and experiencing the culture of Native Americans out west. He also pursued genealogy and collecting stamps and coins. Mr. Lovelace was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Valdosta.
Survivors include four sons and three daughters in law, Michael & Cathy Lovelace of Durham, NC, Kenneth Lovelace and Jann Lockhart of Albany, William R. Lovelace of Albany and David P & Susan Lovelace of West Palm Beach, FL; a daughter and son in law, Elizabeth & Larry Wisenbaker of Hahira; 10 grandchildren Ashley Lovelace (Darren) Joyner, Michael Brooks Lovelace, Lindsey Wisenbaker (Bryant) Alonso, Amy Wisenbaker, Katie Wisenbaker, Asher Lovelace, Hannah Duenke, Jacob Duenke, Jeremiah (Jennifer) Lockhart, Rachael (Ryan) Hutchison. Also surviving are great grandchildren, Carson Joyner, Mary Charles Alonso, Ava Lockhart, Locklan Hutchison and Callum Hutchison; his sister, Eloise (Lovelace) White-Zeigler of Decatur; three sisters in law, Martha Youngblood Claxton, Jan Lovelace Jackson and Jean C. Lovelace; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his wife, Mary Youngblood Lovelace, a son Steven Lovelace and a grandson, Sammy Duenke, and two brothers, Thomas Anthony Lovelace, Fredrick Schilling Lovelace and a sister, Marion Irene (Lovelace) Leach.
The funeral for Mr. Lovelace will be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2019 at Christ Episcopal Church with Reverend Doctor Dave Johnson officiating. The family will receive friends at the funeral home Wednesday morning from 11 until 12:30 p.m. Burial will follow at 1 p.m. on Thursday, November 7, 2019 at Crown Hill Cemetery in Albany. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 1521 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31602 or The Boy Scouts of America. Condolences may be conveyed to the family on the obituary page of www.mclanecares.com Carson McLane Funeral Home