Daddy

My father, Lynn Pierre McCall, died a week ago today about 7:45 pm in Louisiana. He was 90 years old, and he wanted to go home, to return to Grand Chenier, more than almost anything.

This is a picture of Daddy on Gruela, the mustang he adopted and broke to ride, from before the storm.

Daddy loved life. He was indomitable in body and spirit. He was sharp-witted and could be very sharp-tongued, but he played fair and straight with everybody. He was tough, and he surprised us by leaving so quickly and relatively quietly.

He was born 26 February 1917 to Marie Delphine Portal and Thomas William McCall. He graduated from Grand Chenier High School in 11th grade. He joined the military in WWII. The recruiter told him that if he volunteered, he could pick which branch of service and he wanted to be in the Air Force with his brother Bob. The recruiter lied, of course, and he served in the Army. He studied hand to hand combat with the Aussies in New Zealand, and not only excelled, seemed to enjoy it, at least in the telling. He was in the third wave in the Phillipines, an Army MP and a First Sargent. While in the Army, he received a Dear John letter from his girl back home. After being honorably discharged, he went to Louisiana State University and graduated in 1948 with a BS in Animal Husbandry. He bucked the plans his father had for him to choose farming and working for the oil companies.

I'm in the process of writing this, so I will have to do a little research before this can be considered a done post.