Frank Phillip Woosley

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Frank Philip Woosley, age 85, of Dallas, Texas, formerly of Pinckneyville, passed away Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 9:30 p.m. at his residence.

Frank was born on January 6, 1923, in Pinckneyville, son of Clyde and Lucy (Malone) Woosley. He served during World War II in the 82nd Airborne Division 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment in the United States Army as a 1st Lieutenant. He made three parachute jumps into combat an lost his right eye five days after D-Day to cannon shell shrapnel. He received many medals for his courageous service including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, and Combat Infantry Badge. He also received an American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, W.W. II Victory Medal, and a European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre of Operations Campaign Medal with three Bronze Stars and a Bronze Arrow Head. After the war, he returned to Pinckneyville and became owner of Woosley Lumber Company until 1980. He backpacked around the world for a year and then fulfilled a lifelong dream of a college education when he received his bachelors degree from S.I.U. Carbondale in 1987. In Dec., 1997, he married Bobbye Lyday and she preceded him in death in Jan., 2004.

Survivors include two sons, John (Patricia) Woosley of Albuquerque, N.M. and Frank (Kim) Woosley of Dallas, Texas; a daughter, Carol (Edward) Murphy of Chicago; a step-brother, Dr. Gene (Linda) Cawvey of Pinckneyville; a half sister, Susan (Steven) Malan of Pinckneyville; three grandchildren, Elizabeth Nicole Woosley and John David Woosley of Dallas, Texas, and John Paul Woosley of San Diego, Calif; four step-grandchildren, Katherine (Jason) Stetz, Karen (Vince) Ramirez, Mary (Freddie) Jaime and Sarah Murphy; and former wife Shirley Mathis Wright of Detroit, Texas.

He was preceded in death by his parents; stepmother Lois Cawvey Woosley; wife; and infant daughter.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 12, 2008, at 11 a.m. in Pyatt Funeral Home, Pinckneyville, with Brother Rick Hatley officiating. Internment will be in I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Pinckneyville.

Friends may call at Pyatt Funeral Home, Pinckneyville, on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Braille Institute or the Arizona Center for the Blind and Visual Impaired, www.acbvi.org.

For more information or to sign an online guest register please visit www.pyattfuneralhome.com.