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Tuskegee Airman Eddie Marcy 1919-2016


We must bid farewell to another heroic Tuskegee Airman


This year marks three-quarters of a century since they began their service during World War II. But the heroism of the famed Tuskegee Airmen continues to resound in films, museums and in the sustained pride felt by those in awe of their accomplishments.

As time marches on, the original airmen are leaving us, dying and joining what they call their Lonely Eagles chapter.

Eddie Marcy joined that group last Saturday. His farewell came at Kindred Hospital on Detroit’s East Outer Drive. His funeral is today, at Cantrell Funeral Home. He was 96.

On Friday, as his children gathered to mourn him, one thing that struck them was that their dad, an honest, humble man — whose first real job was as a coal miner in Virginia — didn’t reveal that he was a Tuskegee Airman until eight or nine years ago.

“He didn’t talk about it,” his son, Dwain Fennoy, said Friday. “He would just say he was in Italy. I was very much surprised.”

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“I was astonished,” said his daughter, Jevita Terry of Rocky Mount, N.C. “It was just a feeling of great joy and pride.”

She surmised that her dad “didn’t think his job was more important than anyone else who served. He was proud of what he did. He was proud of who he was. But he didn’t see it as anything so great or greater than anyone else who served his country. One thing he wasn’t, and that was haughty. He was a proud man, but never haughty.”

Eddie Marcy was born in Birmingham, Ala., on June 13, 1919, the son of Arthur and Callie Marcy. When his parents moved to Big Stone Gap, Va., so his father could work in the coal mines, the younger Marcy found his first career. After high school graduation, he spent year and a half as a coal miner in Derby, Va.

But he was drafted and headed into World War II. His brush with destiny came on Dec. 20, 1943, when he was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group and later the 305th Bombardment Wing.

But Eddie Marcy never flew a plane. Instead, he was a fueler.

“His main job was to fuel,” said his son, Charles. “He had a truck and he would go around to every plane and put so much fuel in. He wasn’t the only fueler, but each fueler had so many planes they had to fuel three times a day.

“From northern France to the Balkans to Germany, he was tied up to the Red Tails,” Charles said. “He knew most of the pilots, but he never flew planes. He fueled them. He kept them running.”

Lest anyone think that all that mattered were the pilots whose exploits were depicted in George Lucas’s 2012 film “Red Tails,” Eddie Marcy received major awards honoring his service, including a Certificate of Merit for his service in the European, African and Middle Eastern campaigns and the Bronze Star for meritorious service in Rome-ARNO, Southern and Northern France, The Balkan Campaign, and the Germany/Berlin Campaign among others. His family said he was very proud of the merit certificate because it was signed by Col. George S. (Spanky) Roberts, the first African American accepted for U.S. Army pilot training.

After the war, Marcy returned to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township until he was discharged and began what would be a 30-year career at Chrysler.

When he retired, “he took it easy,” said Charles.

His days after retirement were spent fishing, watching baseball and spending time with his five children.

“My dad, to me, was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known, and I’m proud to be his daughter,” said his oldest daughter, Thelma Monroe, of Columbus, Ohio. His job as a Tuskegee airmen was one of the greatest things that he could have ever done for our country, and I’m very proud of him for that.

“The thing people would say about my father is that he’s a good man and most importantly he was an honest man. He had integrity. He lived his life the way he wanted to live his life and he was always there for his children.”

By the time he revealed his service, his children were grown. But slowly they learned bits and pieces about his career.

“He did mention a couple of times about how things were, that there was prejudice between the blacks and whites, but what made him really proud was when the Tuskegee airmen carried all those bombers safely, and he was a part of that. He was really happy about that,”said son Dwain.

He also is survived by a third son, Kevin Fennoy of Indianapolis.

Eddie Marcy talked more to his children about life in Detroit than about life in war.

“He used to talk to me a lot about spending time in Black Bottom,” said Charles, referring to the neighborhood where most black people lived decades ago in a segregated Detroit. “He liked to go out and have a few beers with his buddies. He always talked about where Black Bottom used to be and enjoyed that.

“He said that he liked Detroit because there was opportunity here for a black person who had lived down South,” said his son, Dwain Fennoy. “He did pretty good, from Birmingham to a small town in southwest Virginia to come up here. I think he did very well."

Fennoy said in his later years, Marcy spent a lot of time watching television.

“He liked to watch the old movies that dealt with Hitler and World War II. He would watch those a lot. It would bring back memories of what he went through," Fennoy said.

Eddie Marcy spent the last decades of his life in the big, two-story house on Wilshire where he’d lived since 1980 with his wife, Constance, and their cat, Charlie.

But he had two routine reasons to go out.

“He liked to fish,” Charles Marcy said. “He and Dwain were always on the river waiting until the silver bass were running. Anything that was biting, he was out there trying to get it.

And Dwain Fennoy said, “every two weeks, I would take him down to Eastern Market so he could get him some bacon and on the way, he would stop and visit a good friend of his who served with him in the war.

That friend is Fletcher Williams, a fellow Tuskegee Airman.

“Every two weeks, Dad would have me take him to see his buddy. His nickname was Swine. He said, 'Take me to see my buddy, Swine.'"


Service today

Eddie Marcy's funeral will be at 11 a.m. today at Cantrell Funeral Home, 10400 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI, 48214. Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery, 1200 Elmwood St. Detroit, 48207


http://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2016/04/01/we-must-bid-farewell-another-heroic-tuskegee-airman/82511688/

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