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Obituary: Francis Bennett (December 19, 2012) |
Francis “Frank” Bennett
LANCASTER — Francis Marion¿Bennett III, 83, died unexpectedly Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, at Richmond Place Rehabilitation Center after a brief illness.
A native of Baltimore, Md., he was a son of the late John C.F. and Foster Taliaferro Bennett. He also was preceded in death by his brothers, Jack, Billy and James Bennett.
He spent seven years of his childhood with his family in Puerto Rico before attending Virginia Episcopal School and graduating from Warsaw High School in Warsaw, Va. He attended The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., before volunteering to join the armed forces in Korea. He was a proud member of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1st Marine Division. He was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded during the Battle for the Punchbowl in North Korea on Sept. 11, 1951.
After a nine-month recovery in a military hospital, Mr. Bennett started his career with Commercial Solvents in Horse Cave, Ky. His long career included positions in Lexington; St. Louis; Atlanta; Charleston, S.C.; Naugatuck, Ct.; and Glasgow, Ky. For the last 20 years of his career, he was president and CEO of Southern Explosives Corp. in Glasgow, Ky., and afterward retired to Lexington, Ky.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Sue Barbara Gaines Bennett; his daughter, Kay Foster Bennett Saffari (Behnam Saffari); his son, Frank Gaines Bennett (Jill Peterson Bennett); and four grandchildren, Cyrus Saffari, Susie Saffari, Katherine Bennett and Francis Marion Bennett IV.
The funeral will be 3 p.m. Friday at Ramsey Funeral Home. Burial will follow immediately in Lancaster Cemetery with military rites by Caswell Saufley Post 18.
Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, at Calvary Baptist Church, 150 E. High St., Lexington, and from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday at Ramsey Funeral Home in Lancaster, Ky.
The family requests donations to the U.S. Marines Wounded Warrior Regiment in lieu of flowers.
