James Claxton

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Funeral for James Francis Claxton of Bolivar, Mo., will be at 11 a.m. today at Butler Funeral Home in Bolivar. The Rev. Jerry Cooney will officiate. Burial will be in Lindley Prairie Cemetery near Bear Creek in Cedar County, Mo.

Claxton, 75, died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002, at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, following a brief illness.

He was born June 6, 1926, in Wright County, Mo., son of Rolson Freeman and Verba Latimer Claxton. He and Jeanne Lee Ballenger were married May 14, 1950.

Claxton received bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

He was a USDA county extension agent through the University of Missouri in Carroll, Perry and Cedar counties. He also owned and operated a farm in Cedar County. He taught at the College of the Ozarks at Point Lookout, Mo., and had managed an agricultural farm near Marshall, Mo., for Missouri Farmers Association.

Claxton was a member of Bolivar United Methodist Church, and served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Survivors include his wife; a son, James Claxton of Bolivar; a daughter, Meredith Bahr of St. Louis; two sisters, Joan Waterford of Alpine, Calif., Genelle Deaton of Springfield, Mo.; and four grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother and a sister.