Jan Roxy Moore

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jan Roxy Moore, 92, of Ft. Worth, Texas. Jan was spending his golden years in Sebring, Florida with his family when on 12/30/2025, he went home to the Lord.

Jan Roxy Moore was born on July 31, 1933, in Fort Worth, Texas to Raymond Oklahoma Moore and Georgie Belcher Moore.

Doctor Moore was brilliant and the smartest man in the room even when he went outside. He loved being a Texan. He loved being an Aggie and he loved the Army. He was a soldier, a leader, and an entertainer. He loved being the commander but was always a team player. He was an Aggie for 75 years and an active duty military member for 30 years. That included active combat duty for 2 years in Vietnam. He was a well decorated, although humble war hero. He absolutely loved flying helicopters. He had been captivated by flight since his youth. He would attend air shows, visit aircraft museums and could talk flying and flying machines all day. He could identify everything in the sky. He could talk even longer about the unidentified things in the sky. He had medals for heroism in flight. For landing in hot zones to get his people out. On multiple occasions. He also survived with barely a big scratch when, as a passenger, his transport plane overshot the runway on landing. But, with a stroke of great luck, the vegetation at the end stopped them just short of the trees. He was an ultralight aircraft pilot, had two planes, and flew them until the age of 78.

He loved to drive and his favorites cars were a 1956 Chevy Belair, a 1965 Corvair and a 1996 Mazda Miata. He also had a 1968 Pontiac Vista Cruiser that he loved (300 HP) and hated (it was a lemon, but green, so “a lime” according to his wife, Marvis). He loved to visit new places and loved to hear, while getting there, the perfectly tuned exhaust of his last car, a beautiful new Mustang.

He loved to listen to music and had a house full of high-fidelity sound equipment that included a massive quadrophonic system. He loved humor. He would say to “stay busy, stay positive, maybe tell a joke or two because laughter is the best medicine. And the only medicine I can afford.” So, he would tell a joke or two. Given a reasonable setting, of course. Which was almost always. He would tell a joke or two. Every minute. He could go for hours if the audience was receptive. All day and all night if on a roll. Not just verbal jousting or wise cracking. Full-fledged set up and punch line jokes. An endless set. And not Dad jokes. At least not many. At least not till he was 90. He was amazing and hilarious.

He loved to read. He would constantly go to bookstores, libraries and newsstands. Sunday was for church for an hour and the rest of the day was for the massive Sunday newspapers. He had a vast vocabulary, was very skilled with word play and enjoyed exposing the idiosyncrasies of language. He was an endless font of words. Words like “idiosyncrasies.” (He would approve of using a word that has both "idio(t)" and "crasies" in it.). He would solve word puzzles at a glance, before others could determine the nature of the puzzle. He was a great advocate of higher education and achieved degrees in Geology from Texas A&M and a master’s in business administration from USC and a PhD in Systems Management from UNT. Despite the financial limitations of a career in the military, he was able to assist all his children in their educational goals. He loved teaching. He was the director of maintenance training at Ft. Rucker Alabama. He was instrumental in developing a credentialed program during his tenure as a professor at Southeast Oklahoma State University.

Jan loved people. He was handsome and charismatic. He could butter you up or stare you down. He loved just hanging out with his family and friends, watching a funny movie. He lived to see everyone and would try to talk to absolutely everyone at large family gatherings. He had a boat and would take groups to waterski at the lakes in Texas. He loved to go to Florida for vacations to go to the beach or deep sea fishing. The whole family would pack into the station wagon for hours and explore the country together. He loved Aggie Muster and all the life-long friends he had from school. He was loyal, a great husband and father and always there for anyone who needed a hand. He loved children, and he and Marvis continued to collect and send clothes to an orphanage in Vietnam for years after he returned from the war. He could and would talk to anyone. He loved his family so very much and enjoyed their company throughout his life. He loved to discuss any topic, without limits, to try to help, if you asked, or just for fun, if it was your interest. But, with his friends, he would absolutely light up. If his friends said we should all dance on the table, you had better believe his dance on the table would be incredibly funny. Because he couldn’t dance. But he would probably try. Anything for a laugh. He could afford to risk looking like a fool because everyone and anyone, if they spent ten minutes with him, knew he was nobody’s fool.

He loved life. He savored it. He was always so excited to share it with you. And he could really tell the story; he could really make it come to life. He was tough and his incredible will to live allowed him to fight through multiple recurrences of several life-threatening malignancies. He was exposed to some terrible things during the war. He would always choose to talk about absurd things instead. Like being unable to get issued a large enough dog carrier for an emergency trip to the veterinarian resulting in his being told to try to strap the team mascot, a Basset Hound, on the back bench seat of his Sikorsky H-34. There was always a joke or some other amazing, but absolutely true anecdote. He was very much beloved, and we miss him so terribly, already. Jan was The Man and he taught us to savor life and, if he were here, he would have the perfect thing to say even now, to send us all home with a smile on our faces.

He is survived by his children Kristy Moore Hernandez of Sebring, Kyle (and Bernadine) Moore of Richmond, California, Karey Evans (and Scott Byington) of Redding, California and Kelly Jan Moore of Sebring.

He is survived by his grandchildren, Kara (and Jason) King of Sebring, Kelsey Evans of Redding, California, Kinsey (and Jake) Freudenrich of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jared Hernandez (and Madison) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Kaitlin Moore Aughney (and Jake Aughney) of Rohnert Park, California. He is also survived by many great-grandchildren, Kyla, Kamryn, Marlee, Kali, Kingsley, Knight, Karielle, Blair and Theo.

Jan is survived by his brother-in-law Benny (and Cyndee) Fortenberry of Bossier City, Louisiana, along with Mark, David, Doug and Shirelle. Jan is also survived by his nephew Karl Wallace, fondly called “Trey”. Jan was predeceased by his sister, Angela Daphene Curry, our dear and beautiful “Tinky” and her husband, Jan’s brother in law Fred Curry.

Jan had many cousins he loved dearly and is now with them in heaven. Jan is survived by his cousin, Ernest (and Suzie) Moore of Dallas, Texas, with whom he was especially close and very fond of. They could talk for hours on every subject under the sun, but talking politics is where they had the most fun.

Jan was preceded in death by the love-of-his-life and wife of 65 years, Marvis Marie Fortenberry Moore. As per their final wishes, they will be buried together in Arlington National Cemetery. The date of their interment is March 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM.

The following is a list of Jan’s Medals, Awards and Badges he earned during service to his country:

DISTINGUSHED FLYING CROSS

BRONZE STAR MEDAL w/ 1 Oak Leaf Cluster

MERITORIUS SERVICE MEDAL w/ 1 oak Leaf Cluster

AIR MEDAL #22

ARMY COMMENDATION MEDAL w 1 oak leaf cluster

GOOD CONDUCT

NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL

VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL w/ 1 Silver Service Star

MASTER AIVIATOR BADGE

ARMED FORCES RESERVED MEDAL

REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL

REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CIVIL ACTIONS HONOR MEDAL 1st Class Individual

MERITTORIOUS UNIT COMMENDATION w 2 Oak Clusters

REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM CIVIL ACTIONS HONOR AWARD 1st Class (2

awards)

VIETNAMESE CROSS OF GALLANTRY w/ Palm (3 awards)

Arrangements entrusted to: Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home Sebring, Florida www.stephensonnelsonfh.com