Gene P. Neil

   RIFLE A former Rifle resident, Gene P. Neil, 46, died at 4:35 p.m. Saturday in his home at Santa Monica, Calif. He had been ill for a year.
   Mr. Neil was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Neil of Grand Junction, He was reared on a Divide Creek ranch, attended Fairview School .and graduated from Glenwood Springs High School.
   He went to California soon after graduation and was employed as a mechanic by North American Aviation Corp. During World War II, he .served with the-101st -Airborne Infantry which saw a great deal of action in Europe.
   After the war, he returned to his job with North American Aviation, became a research mechanic, and played a significant role in getting the RB-70* plane into the air.
   Mr. Neil was born at Platteville, Colo., but accompanied his family to the Rifle area when he was a year-old.
   Surviving in addition to his father and stepmother are his wife, Elsie Neil, and a four-year-old daughter, Carrol Rose; two brothers, Clifford of Glenwood Springs and Wayne at Denver; and a sister, Mrs. Hazel George of Santa Monica.
   Funeral services are tentatively planned for Thursday afternoon in Sowders Mortuary Chapel.
  Memorial contributions may be made to the Cancer Fund.

[The Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, CO, 03 May 1965, Mon, Page 3]

* jumpmaster note; the XB-70 "Valkyrie" was a supersonic bomber prototype.  Only two were built and one was lost due to a mid-air collision.]

Application for a grave marker and resulting stone for Gene P. Neil in Plot D-12-0D02, Rose Hill Cemetery, Rifle (Garfield county), Colorado.

Note that the application had a penned in entry of Co F, 508 Parachute Inf, AUS but the typewritten entry above stating 101st Airborne Division is what was used to engrave the stone (See more below)

Gene registered for the draft in Santa Monica, Ca on 16 October 1940 and was inducted into the army at Los Angeles, CA on 22 July 1944.

On 16 October 1945, Pfc Neil was transferred from the 101st Airborne Division to Company F, Hq 508 PIR. (More: his initial assignment being the 101st that was used as the basis for the stone engraving)

On 30 January 1960, Gene married Elsie Martha Heinrich in Imperial, CA.

Elsie was a native of Oswirz bei Breslau, Germany and arrived in New York, NY aboard the SS Neptunia on 26 October 1954.

She had three children by a previous marriage.

Elsie filed a petition for U.S. citizenship in Lois Angeles on 18 March 1963. 

On 19 April 1963 she took the oath of allegiance and was granted citizernship.