Cloudy, 67° F
(Jan. 7, 2006)
Services will take place Saturday, Jan. 14 at Wyoming Stake Center in Lovell for John King "Jack" Black, who died Jan. 7, 2006m at the New Horizons Care Center in Lovell.
He was 95.
He was born July 14, 1910, in Cowley to John Franklin Black and Eliza Rosetta King Black Lythgoe, the same date as his older brother, Volney, with whom he farmed for more than 50 years.
When he was 3, his father died, and his mother remarried Thomas Lythgoe three years later.
He was educated in Cowley and Otto and graduated from Cowley High School in 1929.
He married his childhood sweetheart, Norma Stevens, on Aug. 16, 1931, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1934 with a bachelor's degree in agriculture. While in Laramie, the couple's daughter, Karyn, was born.
He accepted employment with the Farm Security Administration of Uinta County in Evanston, where Gloria Rae and Robert Parnell "Bud" were born.
The family moved from Evanston when he was promoted to the State Office in Laramie. In 1940, the family moved to Riverton, and in 1943, he was transferred to the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp near Powell, while his family remained in Riverton, where the couple's fourth child, John Mark, was born.
He was drafted into the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and left for Camp Kohler, Calif., for training prior to shipping out to New Guinea, and later, the Philippines, for the duration of World War II. The family moved to Lovell.
Upon release from the military, he exercised his Re-employment Rights and was hired as a settlement specialist for veterans at the Heart Mountain Project. He later worked for Wytana Fertilizer Co. as a field supervisor until he became employed by the Bureau of Reclamation. He accepted a position as irrigation specialist for the BuRec, with assignments in Lybia, Afghanistan, Kenya, India and Jordan. During his eight years in Washington, D.C., his wife taught elementary school there.
Upon his retirement from government service, the family returned to Lovell. They were snowbirds to sunny St. George, Utah, for 34 years. They were frequent patrons in the St. George LDS Temple while there.
He was always active in the LDS Church, where he served in Sunday School and Bishoprics. He loved to sing, dance and talk politics. He was a loyal "dyed-in-the-wool" Roosevelt Democrat and could argue with the best conservatives of his relatives and friends.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 69 years, Norma; son, John Mark; daughter-in-law, Liberty Black; and son-in-law, Vernal K. Rollins.
He is survived by one sister, Irene Belue of Billings; three sisters-in-law, Donna Rollins of Ogden, Utah, VerJean Baker of Burley, Idaho, and Evelyn King of Cowley; one brother-in-law, Ira Stevens of Provo, Utah; one son, Robert Parnell (Debra) of Tempe, Ariz.; two daughters, Karyn (Carl) Bair of Lovell and Gloria (Don) Tew of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and St. George, Utah; 22 grandchildren; 66 great-grandchildren; and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
Visitors will be received by the family Friday evening at Haskell Funeral Home and one hour prior to services Saturday at 11 a.m.
Burial will be in the Cowley cemetery.
