Michael Jay Turner Jr

December 29, 1922 - November 30, 2020

Michael Jay Turner Jr, 97 of Deerfield, passed away in Florida on November 30, 2020. While attending Loyola University in 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, so Jay enlisted in the Army Air Corps, to be a step ahead of the draft board. He spent time on various bases stateside before shipping out to the Pacific, where he spent several months on Iwo Jima. He went 89 years without ever talking about the war, but the Honor Flight he took in 2011 got him started, and he never stopped. One of the highlights of his later years was the trip he took last year to Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, and Iwo Jima, with the WWII History museum in New Orleans. Beloved husband of the late Joyce; loving father of Michael (Helen), Mark, James (Patricia), and the late Merilee; cherished grandfather of Michael, James, Madelyn, and Ava; great-grandfather of Grayson; Preceded in death by his brother James, sister Winifred Claffey, sister Nancy DeCoster, and sister Joan McKeever. A memorial will be held when conditions allow us to be together in person. In Lieu of flowers donations to the WWII History Museum would be appreciated.