Aubry LeVaughn Heflin

Aubry LeVaughn Heflin, 91, of Owensboro, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at the Baptist Health Hospice in Madisonville. The oldest child of nine, he was born September 5, 1924, on the Ashby Farm in Ohio County to the late William Bradford and Martha Jane Ashby Heflin.
Immediately after high school graduation in the summer of 1942, Aubry enrolled in Army reserve school to learn the rudiments of electricity and magnetism, in preparation for an advanced course in radio and the new technology of radar. Impatient to join the war effort, he managed to be inducted into active service that summer, just a few months shy of 18 years of age. As a member of the 1012th Signal Company, Sergeant Heflin would go on to land at Omaha Beach in Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord, and then serve in the Battle of the Bulge and in engagements throughout the Rhineland and Central Europe.
At home after the war, Aubry attended Western Kentucky University for a year before enrolling at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He fully embraced academic life and all the university had to offer. He was very active in Mercer's theatrical community, serving as president of the Mercer Players and as a member of Alpha Psi Omega. He also was a Master in the Mercer Masonic Club and a member of student government, the Ministerial Association, A Capella Choir and the school newspaper staff. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1949 and continued with graduate studies at Mercer, returning to Kentucky in 1951.
Aubry began his career at Owensboro's General Electric Company the same year, serving as a supervisor at the Ninth Street plant for 36 years. He retired in 1987. While at GE, he helped produce a particular type of tube used by NASA in the Apollo missions and he was an integral member of the team from Owensboro assigned to start a new tube plant in Singapore in 1970. In his first year at GE, he met and married Earline Sharer, the "light of his life," as he was to call her for the next 53 years.
He and Earline were charter members of Masonville Baptist Church where Aubry served as a Sunday School teacher for the Sons of Stephen Sunday School class for over 50 years. He was a member of the Ensor Masonic Lodge #729 and had also been a member of the Centertown Masonic Lodge.
Aubry was a true Renaissance man whose intellectual curiosity shown in every aspect of his life. He was a highly-respected Bible scholar, a master woodworker, an avid gardener, an insatiable traveler, and an excellent photographer. He was a life-long supporter of the arts in many forms, especially music. He also had a deep interest in seashells, learning both the common and Latin names and the natural histories of each specimen he encountered. After a family trip to Sanibel Island, he recognized he had collected an out-of-range "Bay Scallop" shell, Argopecten irradians concentricus (Say, 1822) and submitted it, along with his written report, to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum's Department of Invertebrate Zoology. It was accepted and remains today in the institution.
Above all else, he was a devoted husband and family man and a loyal friend to many. He especially loved and cherished spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Aubry was also preceded in death by his wife, Earline Sharer Heflin on June 11, 2004, a daughter, Joyce Ann Lanham on June 6, 1993, three brothers, Lockery Heflin, Donald Heflin, and Joe Ed Heflin, and two sisters, Gay Nell Motherhead and Anna Mae Fleming.
He is survived by his daughter, Kathy Heflin Olson and husband Greg of Owensboro; three grandchildren, Nate Olson and wife Priscilla of Washington, D.C., Nicole Lanham Leech and husband Jack of Fairfax, VA, and Natalie Lanham Dame and husband Patrick of Livermore; five greatgrandchildren, Brooke Lanham Leech, Jack Reynolds Leech IV, Sebastian Smith, Gibson Ricky Dame and Locke Owen Dame; three sisters, Dena Sue Montgomery and husband Bob of Owensboro, Betty Kay MeLander of Ohio County, Phyllis Shelton and husband Bruce of Lewisport, a brother-in law, Gerald Franklin Sharer and wife Joyce of Springfield, Illinois and many beloved nieces and nephews.
Services will be 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, July 26 at Masonville Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Rosehill Cemetery with military honors. We will celebrate his life during visitation from 3:00-8:00 p.m. Monday at Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory where Masonic services will be held at 7:00 p.m. Visitation will continue at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday at Masonville Baptist Church.
Memorial contributions can be made to Masonville Baptist Church, 6601 U. S. Highway 231, Utica, KY 42376 or to the Owensboro Museum of Science and History, 122 E. 2nd. St., Owensboro, KY 42303. Condolences to the family may be placed at www.glennfuneralhome.com.