Lester Ewen Gregory was born June 5, 1922 in Sunburst, North Carolina (in front of Cold Mountain) located in the Great Smoky Mountains near Bryson City. His parents were Benjamin Harrison Gregory and Mary Matilda Taylor Gregory. He was the middle child of seven, two brothers, Edgar and Lewis, and four sisters, Pearl and Lois and Christine (who died soon after birth) and an infant who died at birth. Les passed away on May 17th 2015 just 20 days short of his 93rd birthday. Pearl, his wife of 71 years, and all of his siblings predeceased him.
Les is survived by his two daughters: Linda Worley of Cincinnati Ohio and Louise Cassity (Jim) of Frisco, Texas, four grandchildren: Marty Worley (Leonor) and Jonathan Worley of Cincinnati, Ohio, Jason Cassity (Bethany) of Coppell, Texas , Lisa Arnold (Jasper) of Frisco, Texas and 3 great grandchildren Marty Worley Jr. Cora Grace Cassity and William James Cassity.
Les grew up in the Baptist faith. In his adult years he was a member of the Church of Christ.
He graduated from Swain County High School in 1939. He then held many jobs before being drafted into the Army in May of 1943. Jobs included: sales and delivery man at a furniture store, gas station attendant, driver for the Chief Engineer of Nantahala Dam, rod man and chainman (engineering aide) for the Tennessee Valley Authority and mapping crew member for the War Department (mapping the St Lawrence Valley in upstate NY and the Gulf Coast from the Sabine River in Louisiana to Port Lavaca in Texas).
Before entering the Army, Les visited Pearl, the love of his life, in Bryson City. He attended Basic Training at Fort Eustis, Virginia from May to September. Before reporting to his advanced training at Fort Meade Maryland, he went home on leave and married Pearl in Clayton, Georgia on September 25, 1943.
After completing his advanced training he traveled to Boston where he boarded the USS Merak and sailed to Reykjavik Iceland where he served in HQ Battery of the 134th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group charged with defending Iceland from air attack. He served in Iceland from December 1943 until he returned to the US in May 1945. He visited Pearl in Bryson City and then traveled to Miami Beach where he participated in a two week Army study of how soldiers responded when moving from a cold environment like Iceland to a hot environment like South Florida.
He was then assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma (526th Rocket FA BN) until he was discharged from the Army in February 1946.
He and Pearl then moved to Flippin, Kentucky (also in February 1946) to live on the farm belonging to Pearl’s father. They farmed for 3 years growing tobacco, corn and oats on that farm, and then bought their own farm and lived on it during 1948 and part of 1949. In October of 1949 they sold the farm and moved to Glasgow, Kentucky.
In Glasgow Pearl went to work at the Credit Union. Les worked as an electrician (Les did his electrical apprenticeship while living on the farm) for Ideal Chevrolet, the TB Hospital and then as a plumber and electrician at Lyons Plumbing and Heating.
In April of 1959 Les went to work for the Post Office in the Railway Mail Service Division. In June of 1960 they moved to Cincinnati where Pearl also went to work for the Post Office. In September 1965, Les transferred to Building Equipment Management (HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical) as the supervisor for all building equipment and maintenance at the Main Post Office Facility in Cincinnati. His most interesting project was supervising the electrical aspects of installation of the first bar code reader in the Post Office system.
Les retired from the Post Office (and Pearl from the IRS) in August of 1982. They moved to their farm in Brown County, Ohio in about January of 1985. Les and Pearl first bought land in Adams County (Rocky Top) in 1970 or 1971. They then started buying land in Brown County in about 1972. They eventually owned 108 contiguous acres. Les built a cabin on the Rocky Top land (which they later sold), He built a small workshop on the farm to live in temporally until they built the big LP (Lester & Pearl) house with the help of an Amish Carpenter.
They lived on the farm until 2005 when they moved to Texas. They prospered on the farm in every sense of the word. They enjoyed farming, raising cattle, growing a garden, feeding the birds, feeding the stray cats in the old barn down the road and having many dogs and cats of their own. More importantly, they lived a spiritually and emotionally satisfying life. They worshiped at Highway 32 Church of Christ while living a great country life style close to nature.
Les was a man of many interests. He was a Ham Radio operator, a coin collector, a civil war buff, a photographer, a family genealogist and a wood worker who made many pieces of furniture that will continue to be enjoyed by the family for many years to come.
Les never met a stranger. He loved to talk to anyone and every one regaling them with stories of Iceland in WWII, the Railway Mail service or the Post Office. If not discussing one of those favorite topics he would gladly talk about just about anything someone mentioned using his photographic memory to recount facts learned decades before that he almost never forgot.
Most of Les’ friends and family predeceased him. His family and his new Texas friends will miss him.
A Graveside Service will take place at 1:15 PM on Friday, May 22, 2015 at DFW National Cemetery where Les will be laid to rest with Military Honors.