Leon "Buck" Webber

Lt. Col Leon "Buck" Webber

Lt. Col Leon "Buck" Webber, retired Air Force pilot and three-war veteran, took off on his last flight on Friday, May 1.

He passed away peacefully on May 1 in Las Cruces, the last of more than two dozen places he called home over an extraordinary journey of 93 years.

He was the fourth of seven kids, born in Maljamar, New Mexico in 1926 to a pioneer New Mexico family. He went to school in Buckeye and Jal and graduated from Lovington High School.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1945 and was stationed in Hawaii at the end of WWII.

Leon attended New Mexico State University (then NM A&M) and the New Mexico School of Mines before graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1952. That same year he married LaNelle Griffith of Lockney, Texas. They were married for 51 years until LaNelle's death in 2003.

Also in 1952 Leon was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Air Force. He spent the next 30 years flying a variety of aircraft for the USAF. Most of those years were as a command pilot in the B-52.

He had somewhere around 10,000 flying hours, flew more than 150 combat missions in Vietnam and had a collection of medals, none of which he ever talked about. After the Air Force he spent another 16 years in business aviation with SimuFlite, training business jet pilots.

15 years ago he married Betty Fort Graham, of Lovington. They were an adorable couple and his time with her was not only very happy, but surely extended his life for years as well. Her family embraced him as well, something for which he was grateful beyond words.

Dad liked bad jokes and a good martini, often together. In his younger days he was a competitive runner and handball player, later a fine golfer and excellent bridge player.

He was a colorful storyteller and a gifted griller of steaks. He was a poor but enthusiastic harmonica player. He could talk to anyone. And often did.

Leon is survived by his three children: Melissa Petty, her husband Michael and son Andrew of Hawaii; Michael Webber and Susan Engelhart of Ft. Worth and his kids Nick and Audrey; Eric Webber of Austin and his sons Jake and Dylan.

Betty's family became his too, and vice versa, and he leaves behind her daughter Janet Jaquess and her husband John of Las Cruces, son Alan Graham and wife Sally of Georgetown Texas and daughter Susan Graham and her husband Clay Brakeley of Burbank, California, along with 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Leon will be buried at the National Cemetery in Dallas.