Joseph Walton Connaughton, 94, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Evanston, Indiana, Joe was raised by his Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Y in Tuscaloosa. After Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew 47 missions as a bombardier-navigator in B-24s and B-26s in the European and Pacific theatres. (In 2014, he authored “Tales of the 319th: The WWII Accounts of Courageous Aviators in a Fearful Time.” And in January 2016, the Republic of France awarded Joe as a Knight of the Legion of Honor for his role in the August 15, 1944 invasion of southern France.) After the war, he earned his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama. In 1951, he worked at National Gypsum in Mobile, where he met his wife for the next 64 years, Laura Houston, in the choir of the Dauphin Way Methodist Church. In 1958, Joe and Laura moved to Huntsville where Joe worked for the next 28 years as a small-rocket propulsion expert for the Army Missile Command. Joe and Laura attended Trinity United Methodist Church for 60 years, where Joe served for years on world hunger efforts and as church historian.
Joe is survived by his wife, Laura; daughters Julie Blum (John) and Martha White; son, Jeff Connaughton; grandchildren Jaime Hedden (Adam), Laura Blum and Robert Blum; and great-grandchildren Scott, Jonah and Jalynn Hedden.
When asked in the final days of his long life what he wished to be in his obituary, he said: “He was a good Christian man who responded to the needs of his family and the needs of his country.”
Visitation will be at Laughlin Funeral Home on Saturday, May 12, from 1-3pm. Funeral services will follow at Trinity United Methodist Church at 4:30pm.
