Lawrence Gene Hornsby was born in Amory, Mississippi on January 8, 1930 to Alvin Sebastian Hornsby and Lorena Barnett Hornsby. He went to Amory High School then he went to Mississippi State for 2 years before joining the Air Force. While in the Air Force, he was stationed at Elmendorff Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. There he enjoyed flying in the back of planes as a radar operator. While stationed there he also met a nurse, Sylvia Menning, whom he married a short 5 months later after a whirlwind romance. After serving during the Korean Conflict, Gene and Sylvia moved to Jackson, Mississippi where Gene went back to Mississippi State and got his undergraduate degree then went to Ole Miss for med school. During this time they had their first daughter, Paula Denise. When he finished med school, he took a residency in Burbank, California where they had their second daughter, Cynthia Lynn. After that residency, they moved to Cherokee, Iowa for another residency and their last daughter, Laurie Jean, was born. From there the family moved to Livonia, Michigan then to Omaha, Nebraska to Blacklick, Ohio before settling in Galveston, Texas where Gene was head of Child Psychiatry and a professor at the med school at UTMB until 1980. Then he and Sylvia divorced and he moved to Williamsburg, Virginia where he married Barbara Johnson in 1981. Gene held many prestigious positions over the years including serving as president on the joint commission but his passion was teaching at the med schools. He loved teaching about his chosen profession. He also had a love of changing his scenery where he lived and went on to live in many different cities but finally coming back to retire in Galveston only to lose his house during Hurricane Ike so he moved close to his daughters and ended up living on Lake Conroe where he felt at home on the water. He lived there with Barbara until she passed away. He kept on her caregivers, Kathy and Alonso Hidalgo who maintained the house and yard as well as tended to Gene taking him places and taking care of him when his eyesight failed. They continued to take care of him after his recent unexpected diagnosis of colon cancer until his death at home.
He is preceded in death by his parents: Alvin Sebastian Hornsby & Lorena Barnett Hornsby, Sylvia M. Hornsby and Barbara Hornsby. He is survived by his 2 sisters, Gail Gauthier & her husband Chuck and Lynn McInerny and her husband Steve. He is also survived by his daughters: Paula Alexander & husband Steaven, Cindy Hornsby, Laurie Kjellander and her husband Jim, grandsons William and Fletcher Alexander, Jamie Kjellander and wife Stephanie, Douglas Kjellander & wife Katrina and granddaughter Savannah Hornsby. He also lived to meet his first great granddaughter, Effie Charlotte Kjellander, daughter of Douglas & Katrina.
He was well loved, respected and will truly be missed.
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