James William "Jimmy" Zahnd
Trinity
Funeral service for James "Jimmy" William Zahnd, 86, of Trinity will be Tuesday at 12 p.m. at Ridout''s Brown-Service Funeral Home in Decatur with Mike Nix officiating. Burial will be in Roselawn Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. Mr. Zahnd, who passed away February 13, 2010, was born August 27, 1923, in Lauderdale County to Lawrence Eugene Zahnd and Susie Mae Crowder Zahnd. He married Jewell Faye Lacroix in 1948, and the couple settled in Decatur. In latter years, they moved to a quiet corner plot in Trinity. He and his wife were members of Austinville Church of Christ. In his working life, James worked as a radio repairman before branching out and founding Zahnd Radio Service. He owned and operated his own business for a short period of time before joining the ranks of NASA at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville. He was an employee of NASA for 33 years before he retired. He worked on various projects at NASA, including the Apollo and Saturn rocket programs. He was part of the teams that produced the first manned spaceflight, the first lunar landing and man''s first flight to the moon. His team also determined the proper restart sequence that helped avoid disaster in the famed Apollo 13 mission. His passing is preceded by his parents. Survivors include his wife, Jewell Faye Zahnd; his brother, Thomas Eugene Zahnd (Ruby) of Macon, Ga.; two daughters, Deborah Jo Pirtle (Harold) of Trinity, Donna Faye Burcham of Decatur; three grandchildren, Angie Pirtle Bowen (Jeff), Rebecca Lynn Pirtle, and William Casey Pirtle (Margaret Ann), all of Decatur; and three great-grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Jerome Zahnd, Kennon Ledbetter, Jeff Bowen, Casey Pirtle, Hunter Zahnd and Jacob Hutto.