JACOB K. WELLS

~Correction: The mural at Fountain and Broadway commemorates Cape Girardeau's bicentennial.

A memorial service for Jacob Kenneth Wells of Marble Hill, a well known art instructor, will be held at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999 at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Chapel in Jackson. The Rev. Ernest L. Jordan, retired pastor of Evangelical United Church of Christ in Cape Girardeau, will officiate.

Friends may call at the funeral chapel from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Thursday.

Mr. Wells, 81, died Aug. 1, 1999 in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 6, 1918 in Marble Hill, a son of Jesse King and Ibbia Simmerman Wells. On Feb. 24, 1943, he was married to Jeannette L. Wagner in St. Louis. She died in February of 1977.

He resided in Cape Girardeau County most of his lifetime. Mr. Wells attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, George Peabody School for Teachers in Nashville, Tnn., now a part of Vanderbilt University; and the University of Missouri in Columbia.

He enlisted in the military in 1942, and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the Aleutian Islands until 1945, during World War II.Mr. Wells taught in both elementary and secondary schools in the Jackson R-2 School District until 1960. He then became an instructor of art at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, retiring in 1980.

He was a member of Evangelical United Church of Christ in Cape Girardeau.

Mr. Wells was a member of the Community Teachers Association, Retired Teachers of Missouri, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Missouri State Teachers Association, Southeast Missouri State University Alumni Association, Southeast Missouri Arts Council, River Heritage Museum, and the Bollinger County Historical Society, and Copper Dome Society.

His teaching and artistic efforts have been recognized with a number of honors including The Arts Council Otto Dingeldein Award for Achievement in The Arts, SEMO District Teachers Association, Distinguished Service in Education, Southeast Missouri State University in Painting and Teaching, and Alumni Merit Award.

Mr. Wells had a lifelong interest in nature and history which was reflected in the many drawings and watercolor paintings he produced. He also produced a number of murals, the most prominent being the Jake Wells Mural in Kent Library at SEMO University. Mr. Wells designed the mural located at the corner of Fountain and Broadway in Cape Girardeau, which commemorates the Cape Girardeau Centennial. In 1977, he completed a series of paintings of water mills in Missouri, and in 1990, he collaborated with Dr. George Suggs, to produce the book entitled, "Water Mills Of The Missouri Ozarks."Surviving are a son and daughter-in-law, Bert N. and Margaret Wells of Cape Girardeau; a daughter and son-in-law, Jeanie and Jack Troy of Marble Hill; a sister, Myra Jean Allen of Glen Allen; and two grandsons, Jesse Wells and Jacob Wells of Cape Girardeau. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, Webster and Zahn, a sister, Marguerite.

Memorials may be made to the Southeast Missouri State University Museum, Evangelical United Church of Christ, or other church or charity.