John Lamkin Sr.

John Tucker Lamkin Sr. died on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2017, a few weeks before his 95th birthday. While a January stroke stemming from a 2014 auto accident deprived him of much, he knew his name and that he was a Marine.

He was the younger of the two sons of Robert E. Lee and Floy V. Tucker Lamkin, both of old Virginia families removed to the heart of Missouri's "Little Dixie." In 1907, the father came to Cape Girardeau to open the Buckner-Ragsdale Clothing Company at the Quality Corner of Broadway and Main. With his sons and grandson, it became the family's business for the next 75 years.

Jack, as he was more familiarly known, was born June 11, 1922, in Cape Girardeau and was a lifelong resident. He was the oldest surviving member of the Themis Street Gang that included his closest friends, Jack Behrens and Merit Leming, who were last together at a 90th birthday Cape Girardeau Country Club gala.

About 1932, Jack began spending summers at Cheley Colorado Camps. It was with great reluctance he gave up his pish-posh companions for school, career and family in Missouri. In 1989, the old camper helped found the John Austin Cheley Foundation, upon the board of which two of his children subsequently have served.

Perhaps it was the train trips to and from camp or the trip around the West that created a lifelong fascination with the rails. The latter, in the private car of Southeast Missouri State University president and Missouri Pacific chairman Russell Dearmont, occurred during what should have been Jack's last semester at the original Cape Girardeau Central High School.

Assumedly Jack graduated from Central, as three colleges claim him as an alum: Westminster, Southeast and Washington University for a bachelor program stretching seven years, including an interruption for World War II service.

Family connections might have kept him out of the fighting, but Jack enlisted in the Marines, incurring the formidable displeasure of his mother. Nevertheless, Fred Groves, head of the local draft board and an officer in World War I, gave Jack his .45, now a treasured family memento.

An acquaintance with engines gained in Central's shops resulted in an assignment as aircraft mechanic in VMF 121, which took part in the extremely costly and unnecessary invasion of Pelilieu Island. There he was wounded by a Japanese sniper. Before returning to the States after the August 1945 surrender, he served a tour in China, developing a taste for pigeon blood and Tsingtao beer.

Back stateside and on campus, Jack became reacquainted with a former neighbor girl who had moved to St. Louis. In November 1948, he married Kathrine Porter Russell there and brought her back to Cape Girardeau in time for the May 1949 tornado. Numerous well-behaved children quickly followed, dashing all thoughts of a Rocky Mountain high.

In addition to the family business, he helped build the Jaycee golf course, flipped pancakes for the Lions Club, war-whooped for the Parsley and Shumate Indians, did his bit with the Chamber of Commerce, counterbalanced the doctors on the Southeast Hospital Board and was a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church. In 1956, his beard won the Sesquicentennial Brother of the Brush contest. No one with Jack ever left the SEMO District Fair empty-handed. Prior to the accident, he attended the daily supreme court sessions on Kingshighway. Most recently, he served as grand marshal of the Wik-a-Te-Wa Fourth of July parade.

No article about Jack would be complete without a mention of his dogs: Skippy, Gizmo, Tinkerbell, Jenny (Ratdog), Andy, Shadow, Spanky and Beau. They were true companions.

After Buckner's closed, the Lamkin association with Main Street continued into the 21st century as Jack and Po built and lived in the first of the residential renovations overlooking the Mississippi. And, although all six of his children call Cape Girardeau home, none reside in town. They include J.T. and Kathleen of the blue states; Walter and Sharon of St. Louis; the late Richard and Sue of Montgomery, Alabama; Kathrine and Dr. Vic Trammell of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Melissa and Thomas O'Connor of London; and Clayton and Donna of Quincy, Illinois. At last count there were 18 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson, with another scheduled for Jack's birthday, all of whom but the last attended the 60th wedding anniversary.

Jack gave up his dreams so that we could have ours. The Lamkin children wish to apologize to those inconvenienced by his driving. We should have insisted, but in conscience could not, that he surrender his last bit of independence. We now pay the bill.

In lieu of contributions, remember Jack over a good meal out, but if that is not enough, consider the John Austin Cheley Foundation, 1420 Ogden St., Suite 102, Denver, CO 80218.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home.

Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau, with the Rev. Terry Epling officiating. Burial will be at Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

Online condolences can be shared at fordandsonsfuneralhome.com.

For more stories and photos, go to https://sites.google.com/site/johntuckerlamkin/