DEWEY GEORGE FERRELL, JR. , age 96, formerly of Kanawha City, West Virginia, and a long time resident of both St. Petersburg, Florida and Dunnellon, Florida, passed away on Tuesday, February 26, 2019.  A decorated destroyer and submarine combat veteran of World War II, Dewey is survived by his son, Don E. Ferrell of Ocala, Forida, along with Don's wife Yvonne, and three grandchildren, Donevon Dewey Ferrell, age 14, and Abby Morgan Ferrell, age 8, who are Don and Yvonne's children in Ocala, and Donna Susan Polzak, Don's grown daughter who is married to Joseph Polzak and living in Sarasota, FL.  Dewey is also survived by two sisters, Naomi Lou Tyree who is married to Warren Tyree and lives in Temple Terrace, Florida, and Doris Jean Weinman, living in Tampa, Florida and very recently widowed due to the passing of her loving husband James Weinman. Dewey was preceded in death by his loving wife of 70 years, Mildred Louise (Phillips) Ferrell, formerly of St. Albans, West Virginia; his only daughter, Deborah Renee Dempsey, of Clearwater, FL; his parents, Dewey G. Ferrell, Sr. and Mary Montague Ferrell, both of Kanawha City; and two sisters, Betty Lee Calvano married to still surviving and long loving brother-in-law Louis Calvano of Temple Terrace, and Ruth Ann Hopkins, also of Temple Terrace and a widow of Howard Hopkins.

Dewey began his career in the U.S. Navy in 1939, serving aboard the U.S.S. MADISON, a destroyer quietly assigned to assist the United Kingdom two years before the United States entered into World War II. Eventually, after much surface combat against the Germans, Dewey's "love of ice cream" resulted in his volunteering to join the submarine service.  Submarines came equipped with ice cream machines and destroyers didn't. Dewey was a member of the commissioning crew of the BAYA, S.S. 318, which completed five war patrols and cruised 50,772 miles in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.  The BAYA was a very active submarine, being attacked by thirty-six enemy anti-submarine vessels during its five war patrols.  She evaded one hundred and forty-two enemy plane contacts, and survived the detonation of one hundred and sixty-four depth charges during various anti-submarine attacks.  On three separate occasions, the BAYA fought it out on the surface with anti-submarine vessels, and made a total of six hundred and eighty-four dives. The BAYA was credited with going head to head with and sinking two Japanese Destroyers, a torpedo boat and a special duty sub chaser, as well as a substantial number of other freighters and tankers. The BAYA's commanding officers were awarded The Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, The Bronze Star Medal, and the Navy Letter of Commendation Ribbon.  Dewey had a handsome collection of medals which his son Don, as a small child, played with and eventually traded for a rusty BB gun that didn't work.

After six years in the Navy, Dewey worked with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for over thirty years, eventually becoming a Group Manager.  Dewey and his wife were very close with Don and his family, and they traveled extensively as a group.  Many wonderful vacations were spent together aboard chartered boats in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, in the mountains of Colorado, and in the hills of Georgia.  During his entire lifetime, no one can ever remember seeing Dewey upset or angry for even a brief moment.  The terrible war experiences he endured – all in the pursuit of ice cream – made every other distraction in life seem trivial.  You could not upset this strong and wonderful man.

Dewey will be forever loved and remembered by those of us he left behind.  We are devastated.  Our hearts are broken.  We will all miss the joy and love that he brought into our lives, and his legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of everyone he interacted with.  Quoting Helen Keller, his loving granddaughter Donna said " What we have enjoyed, we can never lose.  All that we love deeply becomes part of us ."  His final meal was ice cream, hand fed to him in very small bites by his son at bedside. The old submariner then smiled, gave a thumb's up, closed his eyes, and passed quietly and without pain.

Graveside services will be at the Florida National Cemetery located near the city of Bushnell in Sumter County, Florida at 10:00 AM, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, where he will be buried next to the love of his life, his wife, Louise.  At his request, there will be no formal funeral or public visitation. Baldwin Bros. Funeral Home is entrusted with arrangements.