Photos © by Kay Marshall

Obit posted by Janet Laubhan Flickinger

http://www.havenbrookfuneralhome.com/

Colonel A. Dee Pickard, U.S. Army (retired), passed away quietly on July 10, 2011, in Norman, at the Oklahoma Veteran's Center.

Friends may pay their final respects at the Havenbrook Funeral Home in Norman from 12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., Tuesday, July 12, 2011 with the family greeting friends from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.  Funeral services will be held 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, July 13, 2011 in the Chapel of the Havenbrook Funeral Home.

Burial, with full military honors, wilt be at Norman's IOOF Cemetery immediately following the funeral services.

A native of Norman, Dee Pickard was the third child of Claud and Molly Avo (Berry) Pickard. He graduated from Norman High School in 1937, and immediately enrolled In the University of Oklahoma where he majored in accounting, was a cadet in the University ROTC detachment and a brother in the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Called to active duty as a field artillery second lieutenant in June of 1941, Dee Pickard shipped out with the Fourth Armored in early January, 1944, for southern England where the division prepared for the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France. Upon taking the offensive approximately six weeks after D-Day, the Fourth Armored Division led George S. Patton's Third U.S. Army across France, Germany, and into Czechoslovakia, sustaining an unrivaled record of 276 consecutive days of combat operations against the Third Reich; and covering more ground than any other Army division in World War II. Perhaps the most famous of the Fourth Armored's storied exploits would be the relief of the famed 1015 Airborne at Bastogne, and Dee Pickard was one of the first officers to be interviewed by the AP and UPI in Bastogne on the day after Christmas, 1944.

After serving in the constabulary in Germany following the war, Dee Pickard returned home as one of the Army's youngest lieutenant colonels in 1947; married his college sweetheart, the former Mary Ehret; and began a long and distinguished Army career in various staff and command assignments with units located in the United States, Japan, and Korea. These assignments included a tour-of-duty teaching field artillery gunnery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; two tours-of-duty serving in the Pentagon; a tour­of-duty as the G-2 for Intelligence with the Eighth U.S. Army in Korea; and a tour-of-duty as the Commanding Officer, Sandia Base, New Mexico. After serving for a total of thirty-four years, Dee Pickard retired from the Army in January of 1972. His many awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit (2d OLC), the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal with V-device, the Army Commendation Medal, the Purple Heart Medal, the European Campaign Medal with 5 battle stars, the French Fourragere, the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation, and the General Staff Identification Badge.

After retiring from the Army, Dee Pickard spent his time with his beloved thoroughbred horses. His first assignment with the Oklahoma National Guard in 1938 had been with a horse-drawn artillery battery stationed at Fort Sill, and his love for horses lasted for the rest of his life. Having graduated from the Potomac Horse Center in northern Virginia with a Horse Masters Degree, Dee thoroughly enjoyed training his thoroughbreds in the art of dressage and stadium and field jumping. After four years in Norman, Dee and Mary made one final move to Boerne, Texas, where they lived for the rest of their lives together.

Dee's wife of sixty-two years, Mary, preceded him on November 22, 2008. Also preceding him were his older brother and sister, Claud Pickard Jr., and Addie Lee Barker.

Dee is survived by his youngest sister, Mary Bess Gamel, of Norman; his son and daughter-in-law Andy and Frances Pickard, his daughter Carolyn Pickard, his granddaughter and her husband Lindsey and Everett Coleman, and his great-granddaughter, Miss Presley Coleman.

The family requests memorials be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, 4899 Belfort Road, Suite 300, Jacksonville, Florida, 32256 (online at https://supportwoundedwarriorproject.org) or Heartland Hospice, 1923 Atchison Drive, Norman, Oklahoma, 73069.