Funeral service was Wednesday morning at Wilmore for James Alonzo Downing. He died at Comanche County Hospital in Coldwater on Sunday, April 23, 1995. Jim - as he was known to his friends - lived to the age of 79 years.He was born on June 4, 1915, in Shimer Township, then located south of Wilmore. He was the third child born to Marvin Theodore Downing and Mary (Powell) Downing while the family were farmers and ranchers in the Nescatunga community.
Jim went two years to the Nescatunga School before moving into the Wilmore District. There he attended grade and high school.
In July of 1934, Downing entered the Civilian Conservation Corps. That government job during the years of the Great Depression consisted of planting trees and building dams for lakes. He worked on Clark County Lake, Finney County Lake, and Sheridan Lake. He returned home in October of 1935, and did farm work in the Wilmore community. On February 20, 1940, Jim married Erma Keller of Sun City, Kansas. They were married at the Methodist Church in Wilmore by the Rev. Earl Livengood. They moved to Wichita, where both of them worked in defense plants. They helped build airplanes at Boeing.
After the surrender by Germany in World War II, they returned to Wilmore, working on the Oliver Emericks farm. He also worked about a year on the county maintenance road crew, before going back to railroading.
Jim spent 30 years with the Santa Fe Railroad, before retiring on June 1, 1975.
Survivors include his wife Erma, of the home; son, James of Wellington, Kansas; daughter Lois Williams of Coldwater; three brothers, Edgar of Odessa, Texas, Robert of Mullinville and Donald of Belen, New Mexico; two sisters, Myrtle Sunderland of Westerville, Ohio, and Dorothy Purkey of Wichita; six grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by both his parents, one brother, and a granddaughter.
Funeral was at the Wilmore Federated Church, with the Rev. Kelvin Heitmann officiating. Burial was in the Wilmore Cemetery.
Jimmie, Chester & Harold Purkey.
"A Strange Coincidence in the Purkey Family", The Wilmore News, 27 June 1947.William James Downing, grandfather of James Alonzo Downing.
Marvin Theodore Downing, father of James A. Downing.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!
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