Clay Wall “Sonny” McInnis, Jr. passed away on Saturday, December 27, 2014. He was 82 years old.

Clay was born June 4, 1932 in Greensboro, NC. He was one of eleven children born to Clay Sr. and Hattie “Lillian” Apple McInnis. As a young child he enjoyed spending time with his family, working as a paper boy, eating at his family’s ice cream parlor, and playing on the basketball team.

He enlisted in the Navy soon after graduation from high school, and served on board the “Wasp” (CV-18) during and after the Korean War (1953-1955). Of the many stories he would tell of his world cruise on the ship, he fondly remembered sailing through the desert as they crossed the Suez Canal, having an appendectomy on the turbulent South China Sea, watching “From Here to Eternity” while on shore leave in Japan, and having visits from several world leaders who boarded to watch simulated war maneuvers.

When he finished his time in the Navy, Clay worked as a technician on a missile-tracking station in the Bahamas and took classes at UNC Chapel Hill. Years later he returned to Chapel Hill to visit his former landlady and met her then-current renter and the woman who would become his future wife, Judy Bredeson, a PhD candidate in the Comparative Literature program. They married in 1967 and eventually moved to Delaware where Judy was offered a job at the University of Delaware. The couple had three children, Meghan, Clay III, and Ian, and raised them in nearby Elkton, MD.

During the ’70s-’90s, Clay worked for IBM and later for the Getty Oil Refinery (Star Enterprises) as an instrument technician. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW 313).

Upon retirement from Star Enterprises, Clay dedicated his time to writing poetry, developing his passion for astronomy and geography, and exploring his Scottish and German ancestry. In 2013 he moved from Elkton to Hockessin, DE, where he resided with his daughter and her family.

Clay was preceded in death by his beloved wife Judy, five sisters (Jean Walldroff, Roberta Brice, Ruth Lemmons, Rebecca House, and Theressa Pruitt), and one brother (J. Robert McInnis).

He is survived by his children Meghan McInnis-Dominguez, Clay W. McInnis III, and Ian McInnis, his son-in-law Diego Dominguez, Ian’s partner Charlynn Evans and her son Gavin, granddaughters Leila and Violeta Dominguez and Gylliana and Gabrielle McInnis, his sisters Elizabeth Britton, Theba Thornton, and Ellen Wood, his brother John McInnis, and many nieces and nephews.

Clay’s life will be celebrated by friends and family at a gathering at his daughter’s house (795 Whitebriar Rd., Hockessin, DE) on Saturday, January 3rd from 3:30-6:30 pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions in Clay’s name to a veterans’ charity of your choosing.