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My father, Roy L. McAfee, was born on March 10, 1913, in Laurens County, Georgia, the youngest child of John Jordan
McAfee and his second wife Sarah Emily Ivey McAfee.
He attended Berry High School and Berry College in Rome, GA, where he met his future wife, Mary Frances Babb. Roy
and Frances were married at the Dug Gap Baptist Church, Dalton, GA, on May 8, 1937. They were the loving parents of
5 children, of whom I was the third child and only daughter.
Roy completed his degree at Georgia State Teachers' College (now Georgia Southern University) in 1940, and taught school
for a couple of years before World War II. When the war broke out, he volunteered for a special program with the Army
as a civilian radar instructor. He was stationed for several years at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he instructed soldiers
in the new science of radar.
After the war, he worked as a technical writer and editor for the Philco Corporation in Philadelphia, PA, and moved his
family to the small town of Kirkwood, New Jersey.
After his retirement in 1974, he and Frances returned to Dalton, GA, where they lived until November, 1997. They
moved to Franklin, PA, at that time to live with their youngest son, as Frances was terminally ill. After her death
in August, 1998, Roy continued to live with his son and daughter-in-law until December, 2001, at which time he went
to live with me (his daughter, Saralyn), in Dodge City, Kansas.
He lived with my husband and me until his death at the age of 90 on November 21, 2003.
He was the beloved father of 5 children; the adored grandfather to 12 grandchildren; and the revered great-grandfather
to 16 great-grandchildren. All who knew him loved him and respected him, for he was the kindest person any of us had
ever known.
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