A.G.

Roper

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IN LOVING MEMORY

A.G. Roper

Apr 30 1924 - May 12 2022

A.G. Roper, a veteran of World War II and longtime resident of Allen, Texas passed away at the age of 98 after a short battle with cancer on May 12, 2022. He was at home with his daughter, son-in-law and very special companion.  A.G. was born April 30, 1924, to Albert Grover and Essie (Bussell) Roper.

He is preceded in death by his Father, Albert Grover Roper Sr.; Mother, Essie Mae (Bussell) Roper; brothers, Billy, Bobby, Gary; first wife, Rita and their son, Dennis; second wife, Nell, and step-grandson, Robin. 

A.G. is survived by his daughter, Linda Roper Schultz; son-in-law, John; granddaughter, Angela Schultz Gregor (husband Shannon) and five great-grand-children, Chloe, Simone, Noah, Levi and Jude. 

Stepdaughter, Sue Kurland (husband Robert); step-granddaughter, Ashley Davis; step-great- granddaughters, Paris, Christah, Kelly and Kamani.

Stepson, John Deckard (wife Debbie); step-granddaughter, Lisa Embry (husband Andrew); step-great-granddaughter, Natalie and step-great-grandson, Luke.

Numerous nieces and nephews.  

Also, his special companion Earline Owens and her dog Cesar (aka Popcorn).

He grew up during the great depression, in East Texas, that shaped his lifelong values and principles that he lived by.  He was quiet and kind, always willing to help others any time when something needed to be fixed or repaired and always got the last ounce of use from anything he had before replacing it.  In other word he was always diligent about saving and was willing to help others in their time of need.

He graduated from Union Ridge High School in Gilmer, Texas and soon after went into the Army Air Corps to serve his country during World War II.  After basic training he was assigned to the Army Air Corps where he trained as a flight engineer, flight mechanic and gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress.  He served in the European, African and Middle East theaters of war and in the Philippine Independence campaign.  A.G. became a POW during one of his bombing missions of Germany.  He and a fellow solder escaped captivity and made it through the enemy lines back to safety and was ready to fight the enemy again.  He was awarded three Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart and Philippine Independence Ribbon along with other ribbons and medals for serving in combat. 

A.G. transitioned to the Air Force upon its creation.  He advanced to the rank of Master Sergeant quickly and was the youngest Master Sergeant in the Air Force for many years.  He attained the rank of Chief Master Sergeant as a Maintenance Chief with SAC during his 30 years of service to the Unites States of America.  During that time, he made many lifelong friends wherever he was stationed, all of which he outlived.

In Kristin Gilpatrick’s book released in 2001, “The Hero Next door”, which was a book of interviews with Wisconsin’s World War II veterans.  In the book, the person known as the Grateful Navigator, Dutch Dunford, described A.G. as saving his life using tourniquets to stop the bleeding and giving him morphine while himself being wounded in the leg and continuing to perform his duties.  Additionally, jettisoning the payload of bombs as no one else on the plane was able to.  He stated that A.G. and the pilot were the real heroes.  In 2002, Dutch Dunford called Linda Roper Schultz to tell her how grateful he was to A.G for saving his life that day and what a hero her father really was.

After retiring from the Air Force, A.G. worked for the US Postal Service as a maintenance leadman until he retired. In true A.G. form, he made many friends that lasted many years until his death.

A.G. loved spending time with his family members and was proud of each of them, taking vacations, fishing with family members and fishing offshore with his son-in-law and Post Office buddies, playing dominos, fixing and painting cars, rebuilding cars, repairing air conditioners. He always helped others to fix or repair things that did not work if the person didn’t have the money to replace what ever was broken or lacked the expertise for the repair.  There is nothing that he could not fix or make work, sometimes it wasn’t a pretty sight, but it always worked.

A.G. was also known as a person with a sense of humor and being a trickster.  He always had a way of luring a person in and springing something on them.  Hence, he was especially proud of the moniker of Fat Albert that was given to him by his niece Christie.  The joke was on him then.  When his granddaughter was born, he could not resist a nickname for Angela.  In a box of chocolates that he brought to Linda in the hospital he put a note on it; To: Linda and her new curtain climber.  Angela’s nickname stuck with her with her until she was a teenager.

Some of the things that he liked to reminisce about were times that he and his son-in-law rebuilding his VW and putting a wild purple paint job on it, doing paint and body work with his good friend Crawford who owned a paint and body shop, building out the inside of the first ½ Price Book Store with his son-in-law and cousin George and off shore fishing trips. Boy, there were fun times had on those trips.

He cherished his family, his friends and his country.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, July 9, 2022 at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home Chapel, 2525 Central Expressway North, Allen, Texas 75013. The service will also be live streamed at TJMfuneral.com on A.G.’s obituary page by clicking on the following link: Celebrationoflife.tv. After the service, the recorded live stream will be available for viewing at the same link location.

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Memorials

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