John Elwood Ferrell

John Elwood Ferrell was born July 27, 1922 Navarro County Texas near Blooming Grove. Elwood, as he was most often called, was the middle child of John B and Josephine B Ferrell. He had an older brother Ordway and a younger sister Helen. He graduated Blooming Grove high school in 1940 and was drafted into the Army Air Force in 1942. Following basic training and various training commands he was stationed at Roswell Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico where he spent the remainder of his enlistment as a navigator on a Bomber Training Crew, first for the B-17 Flying Fortress and then B-29 Super Fortress. It was in Roswell where he met and on April 1, 1944 married Mary Katherine Dillard of Palo Pinto, Texas. He was discharged from the Army Air Force in 1945 and returned home to pursue his dream of being a farmer and following in footsteps of his father and older brother. He and Mary had two sons, Kent and Gilbert. A change of careers in the late 1950s took them to the High Plains of west Texas where he worked in the farm and industrial equipment business. A change of companies brought him to the Dallas area where he remained in the farm equipment business until his semi-retirement and a move brought him back home to Blooming Grove in 1982 where he bought the families’ original home place. For the remainder of his working career he farmed and ranched and worked at various farm implement businesses and did what he liked best, working on old tractors. After the passing of his wife Mary Katherine he rekindled a romance with his high school sweetheart and they were married in December of 2012, him at 90 and her at 89. He was preceded in death by: his father John Brooks Ferrell; his mother Josephine Buena Ferell; his brother Anthony Ordway Ferrell; and his wife of 68 years Mary Katherine Dillard Ferrell. He is survived by: his younger sister Helen and her husband Dwayne Garrison of Denver, Colorado; his son Gilbert Ferrell and wife Anna of Bartonville, Texas and their three daughters, Lori, Summer and Storie and great granddaughter Brenna; his son Kent Ferrell and wife Marlene of Blooming Grove and their two sons, John Ferrell and Michael Ferrell and great grandson Ace. Cousin Billie Jean Mixon of Corsicana, nephew Ralph Tillman Ferrell and wife Reba of Plano. His wife Mary Joyce Johnson Ferrell of Blooming Grove. Step children, Phil and Sherry Rouw of Grand Prairie, Bill and Carol Johnson of Haughton, Louisiana, Jimmy and Dolores Bess of Blooming Grove, Debra Carey of Overland Park, Kansas.

John Elwood Ferrell

July 27, 1922 - January 9, 2015