LAKELAND -- Blindness in one eye never stopped Mr. Lloyd E. "Whitey" Maddox from achieving things that he was determined to do, such as serving in the Navy during World War II and boxing professionally.

In his younger years, Mr. Maddox and his wife belonged to the Miami Motorcycle Club and did trick riding and acrobatics with their motorcycles in Miami and the surrounding area.

"He kind of bamboozled his way in there, and then by hook or by crook, through the last examination. And then during boot camp he broke his glasses, and he was almost finished with boot camp, and he went to the military eye guy to get some more eye glasses and then it came out that he was blind in one eye," Raymond Maddox said.

Determination prevailed and Mr. Maddox went on to serve as a machinist mate in the engine room aboard the USS Trusdale, where he participated in the battle of Okinawa.

After his discharge, Mr. Maddox's wife asked that he no longer professionally box. The owner of the gym where he trained asked him to fill in for a boxer who was ill during a big fight, so Mr. Maddox fought one last time.

He was a special agent for Independent Life Insurance Company where he is said to remain the largest producer of sales in the company's history.

In addition to his son, Raymond Maddox, Mr. Maddox is survived by his wife of 66 years, Betty E. Maddox; son, Grady Maddox, Lakeland; daughter, Gay Morgan, Sealy, Texas; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren.

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