Lorren Laslie Perdue, 93, passed away on September 8, 2015. Funeral services will be at White Chapel Funeral Home in Montgomery, Alabama on September 11, 2015, at 2:00 PM. Visitation will begin at noon immediately before the funeral service. Burial will be at Oak Wood Cemetery immediately following the service.
Lorren was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 17, 1922, to Eva Mae and Paschal Perdue. Lorren and Anne Logan married in 1946. Anne preceded him in death in 2005. Lorren is survived by his wife Evelyn, son David Perdue (Pat), son Gregory Perdue, daughter Suzanne Murphy (David), daughter Marie Perdue, grandchildren Adrienne Golden (Wes), James Perdue, Daniel Zimmerman, and three great-grandchildren, Elizabeth, William, and James Golden.
During World War II, Lorren served with honor in the Pacific Theater and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was a pilot in the raid at Cabanatuan in the Philippines, known as the Great Raid. Lorren also landed the first plane at Clark AFB in the Philippines at the war's end. After returning from World War II, Lorren received an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama. While teaching ROTC at Oklahoma A&M (Oklahoma State), Lorren received his MBA. He was a member of NASA's public relations team, serving as part of the Aerospace Briefing Team. In 1964, Lorren retired from the United States Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and started a career in real estate. Lorren founded the American Real Estate Institute in 1967, and he taught more than 65,000 real estate students. He is in the Montgomery Area Association of Realtors Hall of Fame (AREI). He retired from AREI in 2012.
Jim Perdue, Daniel Zimmerman, Wes Golden, David Murphy, John Rice, and Rick Durden will be pallbearers.
Flowers are welcome or contributions may be sent to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Published in the MontgomeryAdvertiser.com on September 10, 2015.