Elbert Maurice Richardson

SHREVEPORT, LA - Elbert Maurice Richardson was born September 6, 1921 and passed away on September 11, 2014. Graveside services will be 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at Forest Park Cemetery, St. Vincent Ave., Shreveport, LA with full Military Rites. Rev. Dr. Carl Rhoads will officiate. Family will receive friends Monday, September 15, 2014 from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. at Grace Community United Methodist Church, Shreveport, La. Mr. Richardson was born in Shreveport, LA to Joseph Emmett Richardson and Lydia Eveline Whetstone Richardson on September 6, 1921. He graduated from Fair Park High School in 1938. He served in the US Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot in World War II with the 33^rd Fighter Group, 58^th Fighter Squadron, who were known as the Flying Nomads and Gorillas. He participated in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Anzio, India-Burma, and in China, where he flew with the Flying Tigers. Following his active duty military service, he continued in the Air Force Reserves and worked for Graham Aviation as a flight instructor training pilots of various nationalities for service in Korea and Viet Nam. He later worked as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service, retiring in 1981. He loved gardening and refinishing furniture, playing the guitar, leather crafting, and repairing anything. Elbert belonged to First United Methodist Church. Elbert was a loving and caring husband and father, and was always willing to lend a helping hand. He will be remembered for his winning, friendly smile, sense of humor, easy going nature, and his kind and gentle manner. Elbert was preceded in death by his parents, first wife, Pauline Dorothea Smith Richardson; his brothers, Rawlins Whetstone Richardson, William Emmett Richardson, Elijah Allen Richardson, Philip Kercheval Richardson, and Murray Sinclair Richardson; his sisters, Irene Richardson Rebouche and Elsie Richardson Ferguson. He is survived by his daughters, Deborah Kay Richardson Bashinski and husband, Benjamin Bashinski III and Eleanor Diane Richardson Kirspel and husband, Kenneth Wayne Kirspel; his granddaughter, Alexis Pauline Bashinski Shaefer and husband, Mark McNair Shaefer; his grandson, Benjamin Bashinski IV; his brother, Ralph Ronald Richardson; numerous nieces and nephews and second wife, Mary Richardson. The family would like to thank the staff at Montclair Park Assisted Living and The Northwest Louisiana War Veterans Home for their excellent care and support. The family offers special thanks to his caregivers Virgie Washington and Elcena Pegues for their devoted and loving care. The family suggests memorial donations may be made in Elbert's memory to Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675 or Alzheimer's Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011.