“Bye for now.”

That was the message on a standing bouquet of daisies and red and white roses.

Under the warm glow of stained glass-filtered sunlight, surrounded by ornate bouquets, the body of World War II veteran Jack Orr rested in a casket, half-open so that his loved ones could say one last goodbye — for now.

“We trust that his eternal life continues in a place where Jesus has prepared for him,” said Marion Park, the pastor of Grace First Presbyterian Church, in Long Beach.

Orr, a longtime Lakewood resident, celebrated his 100th birthday last year in Long Beach. The former pilot died on Feb. 28, nine months after becoming a centenarian. His death further lowered the number of remaining American survivors of World War II, with only around 300,000 of the 16 million who served estimated to still be alive.

Orr was laid to rest on Thursday afternoon, March 10, at Westminster Memorial Park and Mortuary, where he was interred next to his wife of 64 years, Margaret Orr, who died in 2009.

At the small, triangular chapel at the mortuary in Westminster, friends and family remembered Orr’s long, busy life.

“To me, daddy, you were good at everything,” said Diane West, one of his daughters.

During the service, his body laid in a casket, half-covered by an American flag. It was a small, intimate ceremony, with 13 of his friends and family sparsely filling the first few wooden pews of the chapel.

During her eulogy, Orr’s other daughter, Dorothy Orr, said she followed in his footsteps and became a pilot. She recalled how when she was a child, her father tried to teach her to fly a plane. She had no problem holding the steering wheel, she said, but her legs were too short to reach the pedals. So, she said, her father put blocks on her feet to help her fly.

“Every time I’m up there,” she said, “I remember the best teacher I ever had.”

Orr was born on May 25, 1921, in Buffalo, New York, and was raised on a farm in Attica, a city about 35 miles east. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, and transported fighter planes across the country. When the war ended, he and his wife lived in Texas for a spell before moving to New York and then Modesto.

Eventually, the couple moved to Los Angeles County, settling into a house in Lakewood in 1953 — a year before that city incorporated.

Orr worked for years at McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach, helping build planes and working on Rockwell International’s space shuttle programs as an engineer. He retired in the early 1990s, but was also an amateur radio operator, even volunteering on the Queen Mary.

Thursday’s memorial service was led by Park, Orr’s pastor at Grace First Presbyterian Church. Orr, a devout Christian, used to say a prayer each time he stepped into a plane cockpit, Park said, adding that the veterant wanted her to read John 3:16 at his memorial service. She did.

“Praise God that God heard Jack’s prayers,” Park said, “and protected him through all those dangerous flights.”

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Park also remembered Orr’s wife and the love they shared. The couple dated for only five months, Park said, before they married in Dallas. When Orr was discharged from the military, they moved back to his home state, but didn’t stay there long because the winters were far too frigid for Margaret Orr.

“It didn’t take long,” Park said, “for them to know they were right for each other.”

After the service, Orr’s body was taken to be buried next to his wife. His grandson, Eric Kauffman, played Taps on the trumpet while two U.S. military members folded his flag and presented it to West.

Kauffman, also a pilot, said Orr’s legacy lives through all his friends and family. Those who know him and remember him, he said during the service, will take his stories, memories and lessons learned and pass them onto others.

Of those stories, he said: “Keep them with you as long as you can.”