Eugene Calvin Fleming Jr.

Gene was born on 20 November 1925 in Poplarville, Mississippi to Willie Richardson Fleming and Eugene Calvin Fleming Sr. By all accounts he had a happy boyhood, with frequent visits to see aunts, uncles, and cousins in other parts of Mississippi and in Arkansas. One of his favorite stories featured him and his cousin getting caught eating only the hearts out of the watermelons in his uncle’s watermelon patch. Driving to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City with his parents and sister was a highlight of his youth.

Gene attended the US Military Academy in West Point, where he was known as “Flick,” and graduated in 1948. The next year he married Ruby Sue Ware, whom he had met at a party in Jackson while he was still a cadet. They had a small wedding at the chapel in Ft. Benning, Georgia and lived on base housing there during basic training. Afterwards they were transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1950 he was deployed as a soldier in the Korean War and in August 1950 he was seriously wounded in the left thigh during combat. The leg was saved but he subsequently spent 18 months in traction or casts, first in Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu and then in Ft. Campbell Kentucky. Gene learned to walk again as his first daughter Beki also learned to walk. He walked with a limp and an elevated shoe until his leg was operated on again in 2008.

In 1958 Gene entered Babson Institute (now known as Babson College) to study business and graduated with his MBA degree in 1960. He remained an officer in the US Army until he retired in 1968, serving at bases in Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Istanbul, Turkey and Virginia, and achieving the rank of Lt. Colonel. He was known for his dry wit and his composition of poetic tributes to fellow officers.

Gene and his family moved to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania in 1970. Gene was employed in the civil service at New Cumberland Army Depot before retiring again in 1983. He was active as a deacon and teacher at the Country & Town Baptist Church in Mechanicsburg. Gene and Sue moved to Kingsport, Tennessee in 2002 and to Durham, North Carolina in 2012 to be closer to Beki.

Gene and Sue had three daughters: Rebecca “Beki”, Sara, and Donna, born in Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts, respectively. As little girls they always had a lap to sit on and a loving father to help them bathe and get ready for bed and to read or make up stories for them. To both Gene and Sue, it was essential that all three had strong educations, and they generously funded them. As the girls became adults Gene was especially committed to their financial security and stability. He was pleased that he and Sue had healthy, successful, and devoted adult daughters, five grandchildren, and two great-grandsons. He was known to his grandchildren as “PopPop” or “Papa Gene.”

In addition to his family, Gene had four great and motivating interests throughout his life. He loved to read and recite poetry and was especially well known for his dramatic recitations of “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” “Little Orphan Annie,” and “That Old Sweetheart of Mine.” He liked to keep his poetry books close at hand and saved folders of other poems transcribed by manual typewriter on old onion-skin paper.

He also was a talented and experienced woodworker and on moving to a new house, gave priority to setting up his shop. His frugal nature led him to salvage scrap or abandoned lumber which he could always turn it into something handsome and useful. Gene’s handwork lives on in the homes of his three daughters, who cherish bookcases, tables, stools, flower stands, and valet stands crafted in his shops.

Gene was an amateur scholar of American history and particularly of the Civil War and Korean War. When he lived in Pennsylvania guests from out of town were enriched by his closely-led and well-narrated tours of the nearby Gettysburg Battlefield.

Both Sue and Gene loved to travel and took advantage of every opportunity to explore when they lived in Istanbul. After retirement they were especially fond of going to Hawaii for several months every winter, where Gene liked to go snorkeling in Hanauma Bay or hike near Diamond Head. After retirement Gene passed a scuba diving class so that he could enjoy the Hawaiian waters even more.

Gene also hunted deer and small game in season, tended a large vegetable garden with Sue, and kept bees for several years.

Gene was pre-deceased by his parents and by his older sister Jo. He is survived by his widow Sue Fleming, his daughters Beki Stirman, Sara Fleming, and Donna Fleming, his grandchildren Julie Stirman, Jeffrey Stirman, Laura Stirman DuBois, Aaron Ware Kaufman, and Amelia Fleming Kaufman, and his great-grandsons Elliott and Auden DuBois.

Gene’s remains will be interred at Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson MS next to those of his parents. Family asks that donations in memory of Gene be sent to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, any public library, Duke HomeCare and Hospice, or Bennett Place State Historic Site.