Julius King Suggs: Tabor City
1924 – 2019
Julius King Suggs of Tabor City died Friday, June 7. He was 95.
His death came on the 75th anniversary of his arrival in France to fight for generations to come following the D-Day invasion on the Normandy coast there.
He left home briefly as a teenager, breaking his mother Viola’s heart, for an adventure that took him to New York before heading west to fight forest fires in California. He hitch-hiked and rode the rails home before heading off to fight in World War II. He earned a Purple Heart and five Bronze Stars as he survived the Battle of the Bulge before helping free captives from a Nazi death camp and also rescuing the Lipizzan Stallions from likely Soviet destruction in the spring of 1945.
He married Dula Belle Jacobs in 1948 and they reared five children (Janice, Ronnie, Mike, Ken, and Gloria) at the corner of Ramsey Ford Road and Hwy 904, where he was born.
He was predeceased by his wife and son Mike, survived by his other children.
Funeral services were planned for 4 p.m. Sunday, June 9, in Dulah Missionary Baptist Church, burial following in the church cemetery.
Visitation was planned for the hour preceding the service in the church.
A guest register is available here.