J.C. Mann, Jr.

J.C. Mann, Jr. was born July 16, 1918, in the front bedroom of his family's modest home in Fort Worth. He died Aug. 8, in Abilene. He was 95.

A private burial at the Texas State Veteran’s Cemetery is planned Friday. The family will welcome friends at a visitation Friday from 4:30-6 p.m. at Piersall Funeral Directors, 733 Butternut. A memorial service is planned Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at University Church of Christ.

J.C. was the third child and only son of J.C. “Joe,” Sr., and Kate Jackson Mann. He was reared in Fort Worth and told “Cow town” stories to anyone who would listen. He walked a paper route during the Depression while his father ran a switch engine in the Santa Fe rail yard. He attended Paschal High School until his father sent him to Abilene to finish his senior year in high school at the "Demonstration School," later named Abilene Christian High School, graduating in 1937.

J.C. attended Abilene Christian College, earning his bachelor's degree in business in 1941 then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. By fall he was in port at Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, he was in Manilla, Philippines. In March 1943 he was in Midshipmen’s School at Northwestern University in Chicago, a city he loved his whole life because of its great hospitality to service men and women and because it was there he met the blue-eyed Yankee who would be the love of his life, Betty Lou Flynn.

The two met one March Sunday morning at church, and were engaged by April. They married Dec. 17, 1941, on what Betty thought would be a trip to meet his family for the holidays. They spent Christmas Day in San Diego, and in January he shipped out for the duration of the war. He was injured in the Okinawa invasion and awarded the Purple Heart. He returned to the states, sailing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco Bay at the end of the war. He took pride in his service to his country and spent the rest of his life as a patriot who loved the flag and hated politics.

After the war, J.C. and Betty settled in Midland where he worked as a land man for Gulf Oil then as a crude oil buyer for Pure Oil Co., which later became Union Oil Co. Their only daughter, Cheryl, was born in Midland shortly before they moved to Colorado where they lived for 17 years, first in Fort Morgan and then in Littleton. They eventually followed the Oil Patch back to Midland. By the time he retired he was Union's crude oil division manager in the Houston office overseeing crude oil purchasing operations in a territory that stretched from Louisiana to Montana.

In retirement, J.C. worked for several years for ACU where he assisted the university in management of its oil and gas properties. He relished caring for his grandchildren, faithfully attending every dance recital and basketball game. In all the cities where the Manns lived prior to retirement they were active members of a Church of Christ and he served as a song leader and Bible class teacher. For the past 33 years they have lived in Abilene where serving faithfully at University Church of Christ.

J.C. was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters, Katherine Green and Theresa Hubert. He is survived by his wife Betty, his daughter Cheryl Mann Bacon and his grandchildren Michael and Kate Bacon, whom he adored.

The family wishes to thank Dr. James Wray, the staffs of Wesley Court and The Oaks at Radford Hills for their patient, gentle care. Those wishing to honor J.C.'s life may do so by their faithfulness to the Lord he served, their service to the nation that he loved and their devotion to their families, which he personified. Memorial gifts to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at ACU or to the mission fund at University Church of Christ are also welcome.