George Anthony “Tony” Bayard, 61, of Fitzgerald, Georgia died Thursday, July 17, 2014 at Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Georgia.
Funeral services will be held 2 PM, Sunday, July 20, 2014 at The Paulk Funeral Home Chapel in Fitzgerald, with the Rev. Jeff Parmer officiating. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Cemetery in Fitzgerald. The family will receive friends Saturday evening from 7 to 9, at the funeral home in Fitzgerald.
Mr. Bayard was born January 2, 1953 in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to G. E. Bayard and Betty Holley Hartley. Mr. Bayard had lived in the community since 1974 and was a former employee of Shaw Industries and Modern Fibers, where he was a machinist and an auto clave. He served in the United States Army from 1971 until 1974. Mr. Bayard was a member of Crossview Baptist Church.
He is survived by his mother: Betty H. Hartley of Fitzgerald; brothers: Pat Bayard of Fitzgerald, Jeff Bayard & Donna of Nichols and John Buras of Gridley, California; sister: Paula B. Smith & Steve of Dallas; nieces and a nephew: Kelli Nelms, Holly Conner, Kimberley Collins, Heather Ellison, Nicole Benedetti, Michelle Bychurch, Samantha Buras and Jeremy Bayard. He was preceded in death by a nephew: Michael J. Buras and his grandparents.