Roland C. Bush

Roland Clinton Bush, 87, of Belton, Texas passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 7, 2014. Roland was born on May 25, 1927 in Patmos, Arkansas to Charles H. Bush and Ellen (Stanley) Bush. At the age of 18, he entered into military service with the Army Air Corps for whom he served as a gunner aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress that was part of a squadron based in the Philippines during the waning months of World War II. This experience led him to a life-long love of all aircraft, but the B-17 remained his favorite plane and he could often be seen wearing one of his two favorite caps with the B-17 emblazoned on the crown. After his initial service, Roland briefly entered into civilian life, which included a stint as a private pilot. He married for the first time and had a daughter, Deborah, and two sons, Donald and James. The Army beckoned again and he served in the Korean War. Eventually, he chose to be a soldier by profession and, by the time of his retirement from the Army in 1982, Roland's military service had extended to almost 30 full years and included a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. He attained the rank of Sergeant-Major, earned many honors for his service, and received the Meritorious Service Award after his retirement. Roland's career in the military made him a well-traveled man. He loved to tell of serving in the extreme cold of an Alaska winter and following that experience by serving in the heat of Utah's Dugway Desert in the summer. During his first tour of duty in West Germany he met his second wife, Ingrid Sulzbach, whom he married on November 6, 1965 and with whom he had another son, Frederick. After his retirement from the military, the Bush family moved to Belton, where Roland undertook the task - with help from family and friends - of building the house in which he and Ingrid lived from July 1985 to the present. He also worked for a number of years at Baird Hardware in Temple, where customers often came to chat with him and his co-workers as much as they did to buy tools and supplies. Roland was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Temple, and he and Ingrid were active in the church together. His hobbies included hunting and fishing, and he was a member of the Bell County Sportsman's Club for some time, where he and Ingrid were regulars at the potluck dinners. He also tended a garden patch in which he grew, among other things, jalapeno peppers that he and Ingrid cooked into sweet-and-hot pepper slices, jars of which were sold at a Belton café at one point. Roland and Ingrid also loved to make their own jellies and jams together, and many people have been the recipients of jars of both their fig and peach-cantaloupe preserves. Roland was preceded in death by his parents; his son James; five brothers, Lester, Kenneth, Denton, Eugene, and Jimmy; and four sisters, Louise Poole, Katherine Nichols, Iris Porterfield, and Peggy Hampton. Survivors include his wife, Ingrid Bush; his daughter, Deborah Leonard and her son Tony Lyles; his son Donald Bush and Donald's daughter Ellen, Ellen's husband Chris Register, and their children Jackson and Ella; his son Frederick Bush and his wife Michelle as well as their sons Michael, Andrew, and Daniel; his brother Jerry Bush and sister Betty Walden; and his granddaughter Kim (by his son James) and her two children. Memorial services are pending at this time. Mr. Bush is to be cremated with Dossman Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 841125, Dallas, TX 75284, or the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, OK 73123.