James Headley Jr.

James Wesley Headley Jr., 91, passed away July 26, 2020.

Graveside services were held in Shive Public Cemetery 10 a.m. Aug. 1 under the direction of Riley Funeral Home.

Mr. Headley was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, Dec. 12, 1928, to James Wesley Sr. and June Rusella Smith Headley. He was the seventh child of a family of 13.

He traveled to northwest Kansas in a covered wagon, where he grew up. As a young man he was a horseman and made money breaking horses.

At 18, he joined the Army and was stationed in West Germany patrolling the Iron Curtain. He quickly rose in rank and was stationed in Fort Sam Houston as a small arms instructor. When the Korean War broke out, he was assigned to a recon unit and served there throughout the war.

After leaving the service he returned to Kansas and married Loretta Jane Talbott and had eight children.

He is survived by children James III, Mary Jane, Thomas, Paul, Samuel, Mark, Leonard and Linda; two sisters, Bell and Edith; brother Duane; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.