Leroy Hugh Gaffney

Leroy Hugh Gaffney, of Dallas, Texas, born March 27, 1920, the youngest of
three children of Lee and Matilda Anderson Gaffney of Oak Cliff. His father having died
during the Depression, Leroy joined his older brother Jack and sister Mary in supporting
the family while finishing grammar school. He attended Sunset High School, where he
was catcher of the varsity baseball team and an ROTC commander. He enlisted the day
after Pearl Harbor and served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corp desert campaign
attached to the British 8th Army in Egypt, including the infamous "Black Sunday" air
raid on Axis oil fields, the single deadliest strategic bombing mission of the USAAF. He
then served in the campaigns through Sicily and Italy, being awarded the Purple Heart
twice for wounds in combat. He returned from the war to Oak Cliff and married the girl
across the street, Myriam Katherine Brazeal. In 1953, Myriam was struck with paralysis
during the Polio Epidemic and, during her long recovery, Leroy worked two jobs in
addition to his nights at hospitals and clinics. They were married 46 years until Myriam's
death. Leroy worked his entire career at Dixie Wax Paper Company of Oak Cliff (later
Dixico); and was a long-time member and deacon at Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church. He
is survived by his son Donald and his wife Debby of Phoenix, his daughter Elaine of
Mesquite, and niece Donna Gaffney Libby of Oak Cliff, his five grandchildren, Brian,
Colin, Caitlin, Stephanie, and Laura, and his great-granddaughter Molly McKenzie
Gaffney.
Brave against adversity, tolerant when others were not, and loyal to family and
friends, Leroy Gaffney was the rock on which others always relied. Texas will raise up
greater men; it will not raise better.