Last Remaining Bedford Boy Dies
posted 04/20/09
11:25 am
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Bedford, VA -
It's being called the end of an era. 94-year-old Ray Nance, the last of the "Bedford Boys," died Sunday. He was one of several local service members to take part in the World War Two D-Day invasion and come home alive.
Ray Nance has left a lasting legacy.
Ray Nance, Bedford Boy - "I was wounded three times down on the beach. It was pretty rough going."
Ray Nance was more than just a veteran in Bedford. He was part of a legendary group of men who are said to embody the sacrifice of D-Day.
Lucille Boggess, Friend - "It gives me a sadness and a sadness for the community that we have lost all these men."
Nance's friend Lucille Boggess knows the pain. Two of her brothers were among the men who went to Normandy but never returned.
Boggess - "He was always worried about, well why did I come home and all these men died."
William McIntosh, D-Day Memorial - "What happened to him on Omaha beach stayed with him for his whole life."
A sacrifice immortalized at the D-Day Memorial.
McIntosh - "His leadership, his fidelity to the mission, to the men under his charge, his personal courage and the strong example he set and the great sacrifice of his youth, of his physical self and his innocence."
Boggess - "I always think of him being the neatest guy I ever so. Everything was always so perfect, he was so well kept."
He may be gone but friends and family say his example and that of the other Bedford Boys lives on.
Boggess - "It is a sadness for this community that we have lost all our Bedford Boys but we move on."
Visitation is Tuesday evening from 6:00 to 8:30 at Tharp Funeral Home in Bedford. A graveside service is planned for Wednesday.
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