Franklin E. Weimer, 88, died on Monday, Feb. 6.
He was born in Taft to Walter and Vena Weimer. He grew up in Modesto and Valley Home.
He married his high school sweetheart, Evelyn Katherine Richina, in Santa Ana on Feb. 13, 1943.
Mr. Weimer was a retired Colonel, United States Air Force. He served in the Army Air Corps as a bomber pilot in 1943. He fought in World War II as a Flying Tiger in China, Burma and India, where he flew 50 bombing missions as a B-25 pilot and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by General Claire Lee Chennault. He stayed on in the reserves but was recalled during the Korean War in 1951.
He and his wife preferred the air force life to farming, so they stayed in the service after Korea. While stationed on Guam, he traveled extensively in the Far East, and in 1955 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Thai Air Force for landing his four-engine plane in a storm on two engines with a brigadier general on board.
His military duties gave him and his wife the opportunity to live all over the U.S. While stationed in Washington D.C., he advised the military Joint Chiefs of Staff on weapons policy. He and his wife also lived in England, where he graduated from the Royal Air Force College of Air Warfare and stayed on to lecture about the U.S. space program.
When he retired in 1972, they moved to Overland Park, Kan. where he was a homebuilder, a commercial and residential realtor, executive director of the Lenexa (Kansas) Chamber of Commerce, and served three terms in the Kansas state legislature. They moved to Lakeview Village (Kansas) in 2004. He participated in fundraising projects at Lakeview and served on the Board of Directors.
He is survived by three children; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Evelyn.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Lakeview Foundation. Visitation will be was held Feb. 12 at the Amos Family Funeral Home & Crematory, Shawnee, Kan. The funeral service was Feb. 13, also at the funeral home. Burial followed at Lenexa Cemetery, Lenexa, Kan.
The Oakdale (Calif.) Leader
Feb. 15, 2012
