Obituary

Wayne Harold Swords was born in Los Angeles on April 16, 1925 to his father John, who sold advertising space for the LA Times and his mother Mary (Hanselman) a homemaker. Wayne was the youngest of the four boys and enjoyed his youth playing in the rural and farming communities that now make up modern-day Los Angeles.

 He graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1943. By day he worked in the shipyards and at night as a produce manager. Later that year, as the war was raging – he and his three brothers enlisted, they in the Navy and he in the Army – just a few months later, he found himself landing on Omaha Beach. He is a veteran of the Northern France, Rhineland and Central European campaigns; in addition, he was shipped to the Pacific as part of the Philippine Liberation and the Asiatic – Pacific campaigns – being among the first of US troops to occupy Japan.

At the conclusion of the conflict, he was assigned to the occupation army in Europe where he met and wed his wife Zoe of 58 years in liberated Paris, France. He retired from the Army as Master Sergeant E-8 in 1963, a veteran also of the Korean War. From 1963 to 1983 he worked for the California State Highway labs division where he retired to travel with his wife Zoe until her demise in 2006.

 Wayne was a resident of Pebble Creek from October 2007 to December 2014. He participated in a number of activities to include the wine club and the “macular degenerates”. He was also an avid participant in the Friday morning Bingo games sponsored by the Kare Bears.

Wayne passed peacefully in his sleep on May 21, 2016, surrendering gently to his guardian angels. He is survived by his daughter, Barbara Buback of Jackson Tennessee and Son, Clifford Swords of Goodyear, AZ. Other survivors include seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Services will be at Thompson Funeral Chapel at 1 pm on June 19, 2016.

Final Internment will be at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors to be scheduled.

Donations in his name can be made to the American Cancer Society.