David E. "Junior" Osborne

David Osborne, 80, Fort Electric Co.

LAKE WALES -- After obtaining his private pilot's license, Mr. David E. "Junior" Osborne enjoyed taking countless flights with his brother-inlaw, who was a longtime pilot.

"David used to go with Curtis (his brother-in-law) to fly in the airplane and he just said he thought he would like that and my husband said `You need to take lessons and learn,' so they went in partnership with a plane. That was about 1963," said his sister, Betty Lou Ammons of Lake Wales. "They have been flying ever since."

Mr. Osborne, a retired electrician for Fort Electric Co., died of heart failure Wednesday (Jan. 18, 2006) at home. He was 80.

Born in Milan, Tenn., on Sept. 21, 1925, Mr. Osborne served in the Navy for four years and was a veteran of World War II, serving as a machinist on the USS Essex.

He came to Lake Wales from Lavinia, Tenn., 58 years ago, and worked as an electrician for Fort Electric for more than 50 years before he retired in the late 1990s when the company closed.

He was an outdoorsman who also enjoyed football and baseball.

"Just about every week he would go down to the camp, and they would hunt and fish and he loved boating," Ammons said.

"He was a very good man. We always called him the peacemaker because he was always easygoing," she said. "He was a quiet person and people liked him. He was very eventempered."

He was a Baptist.

In addition to his sister, Betty Lou Ammons, Mr. Osborne is survived by his wife of 59 years, Mai Osborne; daughter, Janie Faye Sastre, Cincinnati; sister, Evelyn Crawford, Okeechobee; one grandson.

Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Marion Nelson Funeral Home in Lake Wales. Services will follow at 11 a.m. at the funeral home chapel. Burial will be in Lake Wales Cemetery.