of Fayetteville, AR
November 14, 1925 - September 6, 2016
Rex Wayne McQueen, resident of Butterfield Trail Village, died at the age of 90 on September 6, 2016 in Fayetteville, AR. He was born November 14, 1925 in Lock Springs, MO to Roy C. and Orpha (Richardson) McQueen. He was married to Reba Virginia McQueen April 21, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rex was a World War II veteran aboard the USS Dixie in the Western Pacific from January, 1944 to November, 1946 serving as a radioman and ship's postmaster. He participated in ''Operation Crossroads'' in the initial nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. Upon release from military service, he returned to Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended the Central Radio and Television Electronics Engineering School.
After the war his career with the CAA started in Kansas City, Missouri in 1947. Advancing to the controller rank, he accepted an assignment in Tokyo, Japan, in 1958 with the CAA (FAA) Office of International Aviation Affairs. From Japan he spent 6 years as the FAA/ATC advisor to the United State Air Force in the Pacific while based in Hawaii, one year as the FAA Pacific Region Defense Readiness Officer, Honolulu, 18 months as co-owner and manager of an Arkansas family vacation and fishing resort, 4 years assignment in the Republic of China where he was the FAA/ATC advisor to the Director General for Aviation, 15 months in the Central Region Headquarters air traffic division, 2 years Deputy Chief at the Kansas City center, 2-1/2 years as Chief, Honolulu center, 1 year in the Pacific Asia Region Headquarters as Chief of Operations, Procedures and Airspace Branch,. He was Chief of the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Olathe, Kansas from 1979 till his retirement from the FAA in 1984.
After retirement from the FAA, Rex was active in real estate earning his real estate license while in the KC area and continuing with this after a move to Mountain Home, AR, spending most of his years there from 1987 to 1992 with Gilbert Realty. He was a big supporter of the American Legion Baseball program while in Kansas and in the Mountain Home, AR area, serving on the American Legion Arkansas Baseball Commission in the late 1980s.
He was preceded in death by a beloved son, Cameron Royce McQueen, and one sister, Mary F. Thompson. He is survived by his wife, Ginny, by one son, Lance Ritter McQueen and his wife Melinda, of Laguna Vista, Texas, and one granddaughter, Cameron Taylor Boling of Harlingen, Texas. Other survivors include one sister, Dorothea Maberry and her husband, Bob of Liberty, Missouri.
A memorial graveside service for family and friends will be held October 11, 2016 in Baxter Memorial Gardens at 11:00 am. Memorials may be made to Hospice Circle of Life in Springdale, Arkansas, or to Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville, Arkansas.