James Ralph McElhaney

(June 5, 1943 - Oct. 2, 2022)

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James Ralph “Jim” McElhaney, age 79, died Sunday evening, Oct. 2, 2022, in his room at Michigan Veterans Homes D.J. Jacobetti in Marquette, Michigan, where he had resided for 6 ½ years. He died after a valiant struggle of many years with progressively worsening COPD and emphysema, with multiple complications of surgeries, fractures, infections, etc… requiring multiple hospital and nursing home care episodes in South Dakota and Michigan.

Jim was born June 5, 1943, in the hospital in Newcastle, Wyoming to his parents, Frank Allen McElhaney and Hazel Elnora Cass McElhaney. They were from Powell, Wyoming, visiting her sister and brother-in-law, Jessie and Ralph Fillinger, who lived on their ranch south of Newcastle. They returned to Powell with Jim and his older brother, Robert, and Jim lived in Powell the next 18 years, graduating from Powell High School in 1961. At the age of 4, his mother married his stepfather, William Edward Lange, so most of those 18 years were on the farm north of town with mother, brother, stepfather, three stepbrothers, Terry William Lange (later of Utah), Dyfrig Lloyd Lange (later of Lovell, Wyoming), Mitchial Leroy Lange (later of Byron, Wyoming) and a half sister, Connie Jo Lange, born when he was 6 years old. 

Jim joined the U.S. Navy shortly after graduation and served largely aboard the U.S.S. Oriskany, an aircraft carrier, where he worked as a “jet aircraft servicer.” Most of his time was spent off the shore of Vietnam during that war, with his active duty from Jan. 30, 1962 to May 20, 1966, with several awards, a rank of ADJ3 (E-4) and an honorable discharge.

A year after discharge, Jim married Judi Mae Eshuir and had two children, James Dean McElhaney Spence and Lori Ann McElhaney Spence, both born in Powell, but raised in Washington state by their mother and her second husband, Edward Spence, who adopted them.

During his life, before being disabled by his medical problems, Jim enjoyed a variety of jobs, for months or years at a time, including setting pins and managing bowling alleys, cutting wrecked cars and trucks apart to salvage metal and re-usable parts, installing metal siding and roofs on homes, restoring barn buildings for a friend in South Dakota, working at Boeing Aircraft in Seattle, Washington, and living with an aunt in Powell for two to three years as her sole caregiver when she was dying of cancer and lupus. 

In addition to the many jobs he enjoyed, Jim was an avid reader of western novels all his life, interestingly also noted in the obituary of his biological father (who he never really knew). During his years living in Washington state, he became a strong fan of the Seattle Seahawks and stayed that way, even after exposure to the Green Bay Packers on moving to Marquette with his brother. He enjoyed bowling and was on a team that traveled several states to compete in matches with other teams and bowled several perfect games with scores of 300 for himself. He was also an excellent pool (billiards) player, often winning free drinks and/or money during challenge games.

Jim got on a bus in Powell to go visit his brother in Marquette, but stopped in South Dakota to visit a friend who had inherited a ranch there. It was obvious buildings on the ranch needed restoration, so he elected to stay there, living in the garage he made into a bachelor pad while he worked on the other buildings for several years. During this time his medical problems increased to the point that the VA there hospitalized him and eventually placed him in a nursing home there, where his brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Darlene McElhaney, checked him out to come and live in the mother-in-law suite of their home in Marquette where Darlene was his primary caregiver for 3 1/2 years. His illness continued to progress, with all the various complications listed before and he was eventually admitted to the bed the VA provided at the Michigan Veterans Homes D.J. Jacobetti where he stayed for 6 1/2 years until he expired.

Jim was preceded in death by all his grandparents, parents, and stepparents, his three step-brothers, an older half brother he never knew from his father’s first marriage, and all his aunts and uncles and many of his cousins. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Robert Dean McElhaney, M.D. (retired) and Darlene Ann Hatzinger Parker McElhaney of Marquette and their families of three sons, two daughters, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, all in Washington state; and his half sister, Connie Jo Lange Godak and her family of Hayden Lake, Idaho; his son and daughter and their mother. He is also survived by a few cousins, many nieces and nephews, his stepbrothers, most of whom he never met or knew, and other “complicated” relatives, the way modern families tend to be.

Jim greatly enjoyed and appreciated the care and interactions with the staff at Jacobetti Home for Veterans, commenting several times to his brother that he much preferred the care there over that which he got at other hospitals and nursing homes when he was sent for more intensive care of his ailments that was required at time as he deteriorated. He enjoyed teasing and kidding with the ladies on staff, who all seemed to enjoy him. He totally impressed the staff when he quit smoking “cold turkey” with no assistance of any kind, no tapering off, and no relapses for over three years until his death.

Per Jim’s request, no funeral, memorial or burial services will be held. He has been cremated and the plan, by request of his mother, Hazel Elnora Cass McElhaney Lange Rowse, is that the ashes will be buried near her grave in Powell, Wyoming. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Jim’s memory and name to the Michigan Veterans Homes D.J. Jacobetti Life Enrichment Fund, 425 Fisher St., Marquette, MI 49855 or any other charity of your choice.

Canale-Tonella Funeral Home and Cremation Services is assisting Jim’s family where memories and condolences may be shared at canalefuneral.com

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