Larry Gray Genebach

Larry Gray Genebach passed away on the evening of June 21, 2014, a resident of the retirement community of the Village at Orchard Ridge in Winchester, Virginia.

He was born April 2, 1924 in Battle Creek, Michigan to Carleton Gray Genebach and Elizabeth Smith Genebach. He attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, graduating in 1943. After Officer Candidate School he was commissioned 2d Lieutenant at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Liaison basic flight training at Pittsburg, Kansas, advanced artillery training at Fort Sill, and specialized flight training at Camp Bowie, Texas prepared him for his arrival in the European Theatre of Operation in November, 1944 at Epinal, France, at the age of 20 years. He served as a liaison pilot from November 1944 until April, 1945, was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in Feb, 1945, and was awarded the Air Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters for meritorious service in action. After the war ended, he transferred to the Military Police Corps, and continued to serve in Europe until 1947. Returning to the United States, Larry married Nona Nielsen on April 17,1948 after a whirlwind romance of less than two weeks. Following his military career, Larry worked as a Federal Investigator in Wilmington, Delaware and Washington, D.C. He retired in 1979 after 36 years of combined military and civilian federal service. He later worked in the private sector as an investigator for Fauquier County, Virginia and as a polygraph examiner, followed by a decade of volunteer work that included working with the Warrenton Rescue Squad, the Flint Hill Fire and Rescue, and the Fauquier Hospital located in Warrenton, Virginia.

Larry is survived by his step-daughter, Carol Lewis, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, his daughter, Sharon Luke and her husband, Peter Luke, of Sperryville, Virginia, his daughter, Susan Munday, and her husband Stewart Munday, of Warrenton, Virginia, and his grandchildren, Sarah Marie Batchelder, Christina Holland Luke, and Benjamin Garrett Luke. His wife of 60 years, Nona, predeceased him in 2008, and his granddaughter, Lisa Sharon Batchelder predeceased him in 2007.

Please see obituary and tribute wall at www. ompsfuneralhome.com.