Raymond Byrne Jr.
12/23/1920 – 6/3/2020
Raymond Byrne Jr. was born in New York City, the only child of Raymond Darling Byrne and Gertrude Hall Byrne. He grew up in Manhattan and later White Plains, NY, where he developed a lifelong passion for fly fishing.
In 1940, he joined the Army and while on maneuvers in South Carolina he attended a church service and met and fell in love with Eva Boggan, a Liberty Belle. He transferred to the Army Air Corps and served as a bombardier on a B-17 in England flying 28 combat missions for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He returned to the U.S. and married Eva Boggan Christmas Day 1944. Their two children were born in Bridgeport, CT – Richard Lee in 1945 and Thomas Hall in 1947. He worked for Western Auto in Portland, ME, Miami, FL, and Murphy, NC. In 1959, he started working as an air traffic controller in Fayetteville, NC, where he worked until his retirement in 1979. The airspace over the Fayetteville airport is named for him.
For his entire life he took care of his family, moving his aging parents to Fayetteville in 1967 and being the caretaker for his wife during her years of living with dementia.
Eight years ago after complications from a fall he was put in hospice care but surprised everyone when he got better and was able to move to a retirement home. He spent the last years of his life at the NC State Veterans Home in Fayetteville where he died peacefully in his sleep on June 3, 2020, after complications from COVID-19.
He was predeceased by his son, Richard, in 1993 and his wife, Eva, in 2006. He is survived by his son Tom (Tommy) and his wife Susanne of North Fayston, VT, and by his granddaughter, Jennifer Byrne Barker and her husband Brent and their children, Garrett and Jordan, and several nieces and nephews and their children.
A family graveside service will take place at a later date.
