George Hamm

George L. Gaines Hamm, 69, of Scott City passed away Tuesday, May 15, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

He was born July 31, 1937, in Commerce, Mo., son of Mary Aleen Hamm Leible and Johnnie Osborn. His most recent marriage was to Della N. Shuffit Aug. 4, 2001, at Zalma, Mo.

George was very proud of the fact he had a full life and was in 24 foreign countries, and at the end he lived less than 10 miles from his birthplace.

He graduated from Illmo-Fornfelt High School in 1956. He immediately joined the Army where he served more than 20 years and retired at the age of 38 in 1976 as a sergeant major (E-9). He served tours of duty in Alaska, France, Korea, Germany and Vietnam. He received numerous awards during his service, including five Army Commendation Medals, three Bronze Stars, and at retirement received the highest award he could receive at the time, the Meritorious Service Medal.

After retiring from the Army he worked for Scott City School District as a bus driver and was responsible for all bus maintenance.

He then went to Indiana, where he established and supervised an audit program, statewide, for the Child Support Enforcement Division. He then worked six years as a quality assurance analyst for the Army Finance and Accounting Center in Indianapolis. In this job he traveled back and forth across the world to 84 different Army Finance Offices to either identify problems or solve problems and sometimes both within the finance and accounting offices.

He then came back to Scott City, worked at Roth Hardware part time and became a full-time Scott City School employee. His responsibilities at the school were all transportation scheduling, assigning drivers and maintenance of buses. He was also responsible and supervised all custodian and maintenance activities as well as maintenance of the outside grounds. He retired from the school district in December 2002. He most recently worked for Fred Lange at Heartland Services in Scott City.

George is survived by his loving wife; four sons, Robert Hamm of Indianapolis, John Hamm of Adelanto, Calif., John Paul and Michael Shuffit of Scott City; four daughters and three sons-in-law, Georgia and Jerry Carney of Indianapolis, Mary and Robert Humphrey of Leesburg, Ohio, Della and Chris Moore and Kayla Shuffit of Scott City; two brothers, Leroy and Leon Gaines of Prescott, Ark.; a sister, Emma Mae Gaines Arrowood of Prescott; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his father, mother, stepfather and an infant son.

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Randy Morse and Dale Holman officiating. Burial will be in Missouri State Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield with full military rites.