Melvin H. Handley

Lt. Commander Melvin Hobbs Handley, USCG retired, 90, passed away Wednesday, December 8, 2010, at the Mississippi State Veterans Nursing Home in Jackson.
Visitation is 1pm Saturday, December 11, 2010, at Lakewood Funeral Home. Chapel services are 2pm Saturday at Lakewood with interment to follow in Lakewood Memorial Park.
Mr. Handley was born in Chaffee, MO in 1920, his parents were the late R E Handley and Bess Hobbs Handley.
Mr. Handley became a longtime resident of Clinton and attended St. John's United Methodist Church. He was a Master Mason and a member of the local American Legion and the Retired Officers Association of Mississippi.
He served our country in active duty 26 years with the United States Coast Guard and retired a Lt. Commander. After WWII he was assigned various Coast Guard units and stations on the West Coast, Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Alaska, and Hawaii. H e conducted search and rescue missions throughout the Pacific Far East, Aleutians Islands, Alaskan Mainland, and the Arctic.
Commander Handley was awarded numerous medals and honors for his service and bravery in WWII and the Korean Conflict.
Following retirement from the Coast Guard, he served as Chief Flight Instructor for Eagle Aviation for the United States Army in Enterprise, AL for six years training helicopter pilots for service in Vietnam. Total flight time exceeding 12, 000 hours of flying time. He was a private pilot, and took his last flight at the age of 85.
He was loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, he will be greatly missed by friends and family.
He was preceded in death by his loving wife of over 68 years in 2009, Anna Marie Alexander Handley.
He is survived by his daughter, Melvanna Handley Baddley and husband, Jim of Clinton; one sister, Theda Stone of Flint, MI; three precious grandchildren, Melanie Baddley Evans and husband, Eddie, Scot Lee Baddley and wife, Janice, Virginia Baddley Byrd, and husband, Jon; and six great grandchildren, Chris Evans, Alex Evans, Jonathan Baddley, Olivia Baddley, Hannah Byrd, and Jon Handley Byrd.