Douglas Woodrow Tanner was born on January 26, 1923, in Matagorda County, Texas. He was the son of Wallace Dewey Tanner and Jewell Mae Smith Tanner. He was married to Mary Jo Tanner. He served in the United States Army with the 740th Tank Battalion in World War II. Known as the “Daredevil Tankers”, the 740th was a separate battalion that fought from Utah Beach all the way to the Baltic Sea in support of various divisions of the US war effort.

Following the war, T5 Tanner spent more than fifty years working as a salesman and sales manager for the Diamond Match Company. He was actively involved with organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the American Cancer Society, Keep Athens Beautiful, the Athens Kiwanis Club, and the East Texas Arboretum and Botanical Society, where he served as both a founding and lifetime member and later as president for several years. He died on March 26, 2018, and is now buried in the Athens Cemetery, Athens, Henderson County, Texas, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.carroll-lehr.com