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Memorial service set
for Captain
A memorial service will be conducted at 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 15 at All Saints Episcopal Church, Vancouver, Wash., for Max A. Bems, Jr., Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired) who died May 26, 1999, of cancer at age 81.
A longtime resident of Wave-land, Captain Bems was bom Nov. 4,1917 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a 1939 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. After three years at sea he attended flight school and became a naval aviator in 1943. He served in the Navy for 30 years, including duty during World War II in the Atlantic and the Pacific. He retired from the military in 1969, having commanded aircraft squadrons, a carrier air wing and two ships, including the carrier USS Randolph (CVS-15), recovery ship for the historic orbital flight of astronaut John Glenn. Captain Bems lived in Norfolk, Va. for the next five years then settled in Waveland until 1997. He moved to Vancouver, Wash, in 1997 to be near daughter Suzy and her husband John, both former Bay-Waveland residents, and their three children.
In 1942 he married the former Virginia Elizabeth Raten-burg of New Orleans, who predeceased him in 1995. Follow-
MaxBerns
ing many years oi living at duty assignment locales throughout the U.S. and Europe as a military family, Max and Ginny Bems settled in Waveland in 1975.
Waveland had also been the longtime home of Ginny Bems? parents, the late Herbert and Jeanette Ratenburg.
Capt. Bems was an accomplished pianist and spoke several foreign languages. He was active in Christ Episcopal Church, the Rotary Club, Bay St. Louis Little Theater and the New Orleans Saints Quarterback Club. In the 1870?s Bems was the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce executive director.
Survivors include three daughters, Judy Jean Bems of Los Angeles, Calif.; Susan Jane Dougher of Vancouver, Wash.; and Barbara Ann Dunbar of Houston, Texas; son Thomas H. Bems of Corte Madera, Calif, and six grandchildren, Jeff, Lauren and Allison Dougher, Jenny Bems and Parker and Elizabeth Dunbar.
Captain Bems will be buried at sea by the U.S. Navy with military honors.
The family suggests remembrances to Hospice Southwest, Vancouver, WA.