Troy Cleaver's Obituary
Troy Cleaver, 90, passed away November 10, 2017 in Memphis. He was born to the late G. Dewey Cleaver and Delsa Osborn Cleaver in the Culpepper Community in Clinton, Arkansas on November 23, 1926. He was a graduate of Clinton High School and attended Oklahoma State University. After graduation from high school, at age 17, he joined the United States Navy. He went to boot camp in Farragut, Idaho and to advance radio school on Yerba Buena Island at San Francisco. He spent his war service in the South Pacific aboard the aircraft carrier, Kula Gulf CVE-108 as a radioman specializing in code deciphering. Following the war, he served aboard the U.S.S Wisconsin as chief radio operator during a Good Will Tour of South Carolina. After his discharge, he worked with the FBI in Washington, D.C. for a short time. Then he attended the Civil Aeronautics Academy in Oklahoma City. While he was there he took flying lessons, and during his first assignment in Alaska honed his flying skills useful in his work with the FAA. He worked in Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. While in Memphis he met his wife, Joyce Bryn. They were married in the First Baptist Church and began their lives together. His last ten years were spent in Ft. Worth, Texas, as an evaluator of Air Traffic Services in the Southwest Region. After retirement, he and Joyce returned to Memphis rejoining the First Baptist Church where he was a deacon, serving on committees and as director of the Senior Adult Department. He delivered Meals on Wheels for MIFA and was consistent in blood donation to Lifeblood. He was an outdoorsman. He enjoyed having a garden, golfing, bowling, dove and deer hunting, and camping. He also loved going fishing for catfish with his brother, Doyle Cleaver, in Lake of the Ozarks and floating the White River for rainbow trout with his father-in-law, Aubrey Bryn, and nephews, Michael, David, and Stephen Rodenhiser He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Joyce, two sisters Velma Bertelman (Roy) of Saginaw, Texas and Wanda Rawlinson of Houston, Texas, sister-in-law Mary Lynn Cleaver of Tyler, Texas, brother Doyle Cleaver of Kansas City, Kansas, and numerous nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11:30 on Tuesday, November 14,2017 at Memorial Park Funeral Home. All services will be private. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorials be sent to First Baptist Church, Parkway at Poplar
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