John Allen DAY

DAY, HORSMAN, BLOMKER, ALFORD, GIAMBRUNO

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/29/2007 at 10:38:42

John Allen Day, 75, of Frostproof, Florida died Wednesday, March 7, 2001, at his residence. He was a native of Gilmore City, Iowa, the son of Earl Conwell Day and Martha Belle Horsman Day. He attended the Gilmore City Public Schools. After graduation, he enlisted in the Navy, where he served as an electrician's mate until his discharge in 1946. He returned to Gilmore City and was employed as an electrician until buying a tiling machine and going into business for himself. After selling his tiling machine, he purchased a corn sheller and truck and did custom work shelling and trucking for area farmers. On Dec. 4, 1949, he was married to Donna Lee Blomker. They made their first home in Gilmore. He purchased a semi tractor and did long distance hauling for the Ellsworth Freight Company of Eagle Grove with trips to the east coast as well as to Texas. The family then moved to California, where he was employed at Edwards Air Base working on the new X series of planes. He returned to Iowa in 1953, to take over the farm after the passing of his father. The family later returned to California, where he was employed by Lockheed Aircraft at their Palmdale facility, where they were developing the new F104 series of planes. Later he moved to the Bay area, where Lockheed was developing the new Polaris missiles for submarines and was in charge of all the fifth scale launches. When Lockheed opened their facility at Cape Canaveral, he transferred to Florida and was the seventh Lockheed employee there. He was in charge of all the tracking and telemetry for the top-secret spy satellites. He was approached to join a corporation that was interested in buying and exporting fish from Belize and Mexico and quit Lockheed after 17 years and moved to Mexico. A hurricane wiped out the facilities of the corporation, so they returned to Iowa in 1980. He then built a restaurant and operated it in Gilmore City. After building a successful business, they sold it and returned to Florida. On Dec. 4, 1999, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

He is survived by his wife, Donna Day; a son, Dennis Allen Day of Atlanta; son, Douglas Kent (Leslie) Day of Palmetto; son, Kevin Earl (Melody) Day of Hopewell, Va.; foster son, James E. (Mary) Alford of Winter Springs; a sister, Earlene D. (Anthony) Giambruno of Tucson; and eight grandchildren. Memorial services are 2 p.m. today at the First Christian Church in Frostproof. Memorial services will also be held in Iowa at a later date. Shore's Funeral Home, Frostproof

News Chief, Winter Haven, FL
March 2001