Obituary of Charles Francis Mabelitini

Lt. Col. Mabelitini who had been declining health died on Saturday, February 4, 2012. Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, February 9, 2012 at Greenlawn Funeral Home Chapel with full military honors and interment to follow in Fort Jackson National Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 11:30a.m. until the hour of the service on Thursday at Greenlawn Funeral Home. Honorary pallbearers will be Craig Dawsey, Col. Angelo Perri, USA Ret, LTC Carl Smith, USA Ret, Tom Mabelitini, Ed Edwards, Maurice Duperre, and Col. William D. Palmer, USA Ret. On-line condolences may be sent to www.greenlawn-columbia.com. The family has entrusted Greenlawn Funeral Home with the arrangements. Col Mabelitini was born in Gatliff, Kentucky in 1926 in the Harlan County coal mining area. His grandparents had migrated from Northern Italy and coal mining was the family tradition. He was raised in that area and was drafted at the end of WWII and served from June 1945 until he was discharged in January 1946. Utilizing the WWII GI bill he enrolled in the University of Kentucky where he was a member of Sigma NU Fraternity and also a member of the Army ROTC. He received a degree in Art Education in 1953 and was also commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant upon graduation. In, October 1953 he entered extended active duty as a US Army Reserve Commissioned officer. After attending the Basic Officer course at Fort Benning he served for a short time at Fort Jackson in the training of basic recruits. Further military assignments took him to Fort Benning where he attended the Infantry Officer Advanced Course and met and married his future wife, Margaret Baxter, and adopted her son Joseph, from a previous marriage. Duty in Germany followed from 1956 to 1960. Returning to the United States, he served as a Reserve Advisor at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and later was selected to attend the nine month Command and General Staff College course, a rare honor for a reserve officer. As the Vietnam War heated up, he was sent to Vietnam twice, first from January to December 1963 and then again August 1968 to July 1969. For his service he received the Combat Infantryman?s Badge and two awards of the Bronze Star. Returning to Fort Jackson in 1969 he served in the Army Personnel Center and was later commander of the OVERSEAS REPLACEMENT STATION, a highly sensitive assignment. He retired from active duty in February 1972 and established a home remodeling company. Later he was employed by Midlands Technical College to establish a carpentry course at the Airport Campus. He did this for some 13 years and elevated the course from where students had built bird houses when he arrived to where they built a complete house which was capable of being moved and later sold. When the course was disestablished he remained as the Director of Maintenance for the Midlands Tech system. He often appeared on the Joe Pinner show in Columbia where remodeling and other house maintenance problems were discussed. He retired from Midlands Tech in1992. In full retirement, Col Mabelitini remained active with the Military Order of World Wars (MOWW) and the Retired Military Officer?s Association. At the MOWW monthly meetings, Charlie was always the one who grilled the steaks?he had a knack for knowing how to build a good fire and when the steaks were done. Additionally, he was always being sought out by friends and neighbors seeking his advice on remodeling problems or how to restore some object. Further, he and his wife were famous for their Kentucky Derby parties where mint juleps as well as your favorite beverage were served. These were day long affairs which included the posting of the odds on horses, and for those so inclined, small wagers were accepted. These parties were held for some 20 years. Colonel Mabelitini was preceded in death by his parents, Charles Francis Mabelitini and his mother, Daisy Warfield Mabelitini as well as one brother, Felice. Unfortunately, his step-son, Joseph Mabelitini also died as a young man. The family wishes to thank the staff of National Health Care on Parklane Road for their kind and compassionate care of Col. Mabelitini in his final days. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the charity of one?s choice. Col. Mabelitini is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Margaret; their son, Jack and his wife, Lisa and their two children, John Francis and Kaitlyn Elizabeth; his brother, John of Dayton, Ohio.