James Lloyd Alexander

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=vFDq0VMV-Vc&feature=youtu.be

Cattle Call.....Eddy Arnold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JX50rZae2M

I will carry the blessing God gave me in this man until my days cease as will His daughters and our grand and wonderful children. This is the whole of man and certainly a great truth wrapped in a mystery to ponder as life winds down. (Ecclesiastes).

I'll Fly Away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9ck0BXArA4

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James Lloyd Alexander was brought forth into this world on February 18, 1950; the third and youngest child and second son of Andy Renick and Ann Joyce (Mathis) Alexander in Austin, Texas. Raised on a small ranch southeast of Austin he loved the land, but was compelled to wander always returning to share family and friends with the girls and I. He held all in high regard and found great joy in all his relationships.....with friends as well as family but first of all with God and Jesus Christ. I, our daughters, son in law and two grandchildren remain in this life without him. His siblings, Andy Robert and his wife Elizabeth and Sandra Joyce (Joy) Alexander Holt, also survive Jim. Enough cannot be said for their support and love for each other through the years that extended to husbands, wives and children as they came along. Certainly a testament to his parents upbringing.

He graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Veterinary medicine in 1974 and received a Masters of Preventive Veterinary Medicine from the University of California at Davis CA in 1976; all received with honors. His degrees opened doors to a career in veterinary public health, first in California and then in Texas, Nebraska, and Colorado as a veterinarian and zoonotic disease epidemiologist. He enjoyed his work in both state and federal service as he always liked the investigative side of epidemiology. He was blessed with the ability to delve deeply into the mystery of disease trends that cropped up around the country and craft solutions to mitigate their impact on public health and he was good at it.

From my earliest memories “home”was family. My dad was a doodle bugger in oil and gas exploration making our family quite transient in the 1950s/60s. Moves from Canada to Texas on to California were a regular fact of life that numbered over 75 by the time I had graduated from high school.

When we married four years later, I married a man who had lived the entirety of his life on the same property in Texas to which he was born. The marriage brought to me a hope of settling down in one place to become a part of a community I could call “home”. But that was not to be because Jim had a wanderlust for and in life that would only be satisfied through travel and I brought a great deal of that experience to the table of our marriage.

As I let go of this most important blessing of my life, I’m forced to revisit something I’ve known for a long time...... “home” has never been a place.....it was first a family and then a person embodied in every sense in James Lloyd Alexander....known to me simply as Jim. A quiet, thoughtful, brilliant, God given man who was to be my husband for over 48 Years. An answered prayer prayed many times prior to our meeting came to fruition at a party at Lake Tahoe in 1974.

The prayer was always the same....send me someone who loves You. I knew if that man loved God, he would love me in all the ways that mattered And those attributes came to me in Jim.

Lay Down Beside Me....Don Williams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQQyEG17aE

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We met In the fall, 1974 and married in February of 1975. His greatest and most highly prized production, daughters…..Katherine (aka Kate) and Carrie (aka Carrie Jo, CJ) were born in December of 1975 in Tulare, California. He’d rather they’d been born in Texas but was placated by the fact that Tulare was where the veterinary disease tularemia was isolated. Go figure….😕

He loved Bob Wills and Western swing, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tom Paul Glazer, Emmie Lou Harris and many more which put him in a great position to educate our girls in the dances and dance halls of Texas. He loved to read and always had at least three books going at one time for fun as well continuing education.

I Saw the Light.....Josh Turner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5JclaMW1CQ

Stay A Little Longer....Asleep at The Wheel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL75XvcQngc

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During the course of our marriage we lived in California, Texas, Nebraska, and Colorado. In addition, we traveled to Canada, Mexico, Scotland, England, France and Thailand as well as all but two or three states in the US. He enjoyed the addition to the family of his son in law, Rod Van Saun, when Kate married in 2004. It meant, in part, he was gaining on the feminine influence that existed in the family since the beginning by adding a unique, well humored male influence. Grandchildren ....all two of them began arriving in 2012 when Zoella Grace (Zoe)entered “stage right” and Renick (Ren) Arthur James followed in 2016.

Jim enjoyed life and all that came to his door. His challenges faced with his cancer were met with determination and thoughtful research knowing we live finite lives and he was thankful for all who helped him weather the storm.

He knew death (mans’ last enemy) is an intermission before a new beginning ushered in by resurrection. And no matter how long one resides in the grave there is the promise of redemption and life for all modeled by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (1Cor.15, 1Tim. 2/1-8, 4/8-11, Eph. 1/3-14, Eph. 2).

I will carry the blessing God gave me in this man through this life and into the resurrection. Living under God and Christ is the whole duty of man and Jim knew the value of his relationships, leaving a legacy crafted by God for those he’s left behind to carry with us to the end of our days and gift to future generations.

I can only praise and glorify a great and wonderful Creator who has given us so much in our brief lifetime. Happy trails, Jim……the best is yet to come….

P..

Lead Me Home..... Jamey Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLT4l0STXA

Now and Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g15VeuuJMho

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