Charles Guinn |
| Posted 2006-06-09 by Gail Meyer Kilgore |
| COOLIDGE - The memorial service and celebration of life for Charles A. "Charlie" Guinn, 83, of Coolidge and formerly a longtime Pinal County official, was held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Coolidge-Florence Elks Lodge. Mr. Guinn died May 31, 2006 in Tempe. He was born in Hope, Ark., to Marie and Albert Guinn. The family lived in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma as his father was transferred in his railroad job. They moved to Safford in 1938, where he graduated from high school and then community college in 1942. He learned to fly with the Civil Air Patrol and entered the Army Air Corps during World War II, arriving in England with the 8th Air Force in 1943. He was a B-17 pilot. The flights had no fighter escort in the earlier days, and he was shot down over Germany in December 1943. He was sent to the first POW camp for airmen, Stalag Luft 1, and was listed as missing in action until his family learned of his status from a ham radio operator in April 1944. He was liberated by the Russian army on May 1, 1945. In 1946 he came to Casa Grande and opened a franchise for Greyhound Bus, Western Union and Railway Express. He was elected to the Casa Grande City Council at a young age in the late 1940s. His father and brother later served as mayor. He married Barbara Todd in 1949. They moved to Louisiana, her home state, in the early 1950s and he worked in the wholesale grocery business. They returned to Casa Grande, and he enjoyed his new job as a police officer. In 1961 he went to work for Pinal County as planning and zoning director. He became clerk of the Board of Supervisors in 1979 and retired in 1987. He served on the state and national boards of the National Association of Counties and served on a crime victims board in Pinal. He was a longtime chairman of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union board. His wife died in 1963 and he later married Johnnie Cockrill. They each had four children. Survivors include three daughters, Carolyn "KiKi" Shumway, Barbara McCaughey and Debbie Guinn; a son, Todd Guinn; a stepdaughter, Susan Howell; three stepsons, Pete, Pat and Bob Cockrill; a brother, Dr. Hugh Guinn; 16 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his two wives. Valley of the Sun Mortuary of Chandler was in charge of arrangements. ©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2006 |
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