DARLING, WILLARD D.

Willard A. Darling, 57, a 20-year Marine Corps veteran and a 15-year employee of the U.S. Customs Service, died Friday [October 29, 1976] in Doctors Hospital. Services were today.

Mr. Darling served in the Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War before retiring in 1964.

He was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma after serving on sea duty at Pearl Harbor and is credited to be the first Marine to receive the Navy Cross in WW II for saving the life of an officer at Pearl Harbor. He was with the [Second Raider Battalion] under the famous Carlson Raiders serving at Guadalcanal.

A native of Wilson, Okla., he moved here in 1950.

Mr. Darling was a member of the Palmetto Presbyterian Church.

Besides his wife, Dorothy, Mr. Darling leaves two sons, Russell and Pat Coyne; a daughter, Ann Elaine; a brother, Wilber; two sisters, Betty Lou Harris and Dorothy Price; and seven grandchildren.