William Iii

Mr. William S. McCombs III, 87, of Geneseo, passed away peacefully January 24, 2011, at Hammond-Henry Hospital Extended Care, with a family member by his side. Private services will be held at Stackhouse-Moore in Geneseo, followed by interment at Chippiannock Cemetery, Rock Island. Memorials may be made to the Disabled Veterans of America.

Mr. McCombs was born March 25, 1923, in Davenport, IA, the son of William S. and Eva (Wiley) McCombs. After graduation from Rock Island High School, he worked briefly at the Rock Island Arsenal prior to joining the United States Army. In August 1943, he was united in marriage to his boyhood sweetheart, Elizabeth J. Morris, at First Baptist Church, Rock Island. In July 1944 he landed in France and was honored to have fought as a light machine gunner with General George S. Patton''s 3rd Army all the way to Metz, France, on the Moselle River, where he was seriously wounded in action on November 11, 1944. Following the war, he returned to the Rock Island Arsenal as a civilian finance officer. During his thirty-year career, he also served as a finance officer at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, the Joliet, IL Arsenal, finally retiring from the Rock Island Arsenal in 1974.

Mr. McCombs was a former member of the Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, the Davenport Kiwanis Club, and the First Baptist Church of Rock Island and Aurora, IL.

Survivors include his wife Elizabeth, two daughters, Martha Irene Rich of San Antonio, TX, Margaret Ann Baker of Hudsonville, MI; three sons, William S. of Geneseo, IL, John G. of Gig Harbor, WA, Christopher M. of Harvard, IL, eleven grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and two sisters, Nancy Hagan and Mary Jane Justice. He was preceded in death by a daughter Mary Elizabeth Koenig.