Amon J. (AJ) Clay of Niceville, Fla., passed away on August 19, 2018, at the age of 89 years old. Amon was born in West Virginia to William Leslie Clay and Hertha Bradbury Clay. He served in the U.S. Army at Fort Clayton near the Panama Canal in 1951 - 1953. He graduated from Alderson Broaddus University in Phillipi, W.Va., where he met his future wife, Sally L. Purchas. The couple was married in 1955, and raised two daughters in Beavercreek, Ohio.
Amon served 34 years in civil service at Wright Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, and Randolph-Brooks AFB in San Antonio, Texas, as a chemist, laboratory technologist and radiological analyst. After retiring, Amon and Sally moved to Bluewater Bay, near Niceville, in 1999.
Amon is survived by his loving daughters, Beth Kuntz, and her partner Chuck Brocketto, of Niceville and Stephanie Clay of Pensacola; his brother Hugh Clay of Sarasota; his church family at Rocky Bayou Baptist Church; and the caring staff of Fresenius Dialysis Center in Bluewater Bay. He is preceded in death by his wife, Sally, of whom he took loving and devoted care for many years; and his brother Leslie Clay.
A celebration of Amon’s life will be held on Sunday, August 26, at Rocky Bayou Baptist Church, 2401 North Partin Drive in Niceville. Visitation will begin at 2:30 p.m. with a memorial service at 3 p.m., immediately followed by interment in Heritage Gardens Cemetery.
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