Lonzie O'Bannon Obituary

O'BANNON III, LONZIE

1947 – 2023

Lonzie O'Bannon III made his transition at the age of seventy-six on November 2, 2023. Lonzie was the first child of Lonzie O'Bannon, Jr., and wife Fannie. Lonzie had a Zest for life driven by the Great Passions that filled his life with extraordinary joy. He loved music, particularly, Jazz, and attended hundreds of live performances, and as a musician he played the clarinet and saxophone. He was an obsessive Collector who started this lifelong compulsion by collecting Baseball Cards in his youth before graduating to collecting thousands of Books and Records. He was a sports fan passionately devoted to reading and analyzing sports statistics in the newspaper and listening to games and sports commentary on the radio. Lonzie loved to travel. After serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in Germany, Lonzie traveled to Canada, the Caribbean, and extensively throughout the United States. His special travel interests included guided sightseeing tours by bus and boat cruise; communing with nature in parks, mountains, and canyons; visiting historic homes and monuments, museums, art galleries, presidential libraries, and major attractions; attending live performances and sampling local cuisine; but his number one priority while traveling was to meet and connect with the locals and fellow tourists, who he had the amazing ability to engage and entertain while being personally enriched by the experience. Lonzie had a brilliant mind, with an almost photographic memory packed with a wide range of knowledge on a multitude of subjects, and he was a natural when it came to trivia. Lonzie's gift to the world was that he had a pure heart that vibrated through his presence and made family, friends, and strangers alike know that they could trust him. Manipulating, maneuvering, and exaggerating for personal gain, and harboring ulterior motives were traits that were not in his nature. In today's world, Lonzie's purity was a tremendous Blessing to those who had the great fortune to know him. Lonzie is survived by his siblings Phillip, Phyllis, Mark (Bodhi), David, Alethia, and Daniel, Nephews, Nieces, Cousins, close friends Pat and Yolanda, and a host of friends and admirers. Please send an email to [email protected] to request information about the upcoming Memorial Service to honor Lonzie.

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