James Tate "Tate"   Student Council 53,54; Senior Class Vice President 55,56; Football 52,53,54,55.

Classmate James Tate Loses Daughter

2006

Following graduation I attend a year at William Jewell College. Following Jewell I worked for awhile, then went to Southwest Missouri State (SMS) in Springfield for a year. Following SMS I moved to Rockford, IL working as a carpenter. I decided being a carpenter was not  my forte and moved back to Liberty working at Desert Gold Feed Company. In 1960 I went to work for Ford Motor Company and was with them for sixteen years. In 1976 I started driving "over-the-road" and retired in 2003. Following a period of just working around the house, decided that I was not ready for full-time retirement. I drove a school bus for awhile, then started working about three weeks a month for Crossroad Chevrolet, in Kearney.  My tasks are quite varied, i.e., transporting someone from the business to their home, delivering a car to Portland, OR, etc. 

Karen Martin and I were married in 1958, and divorced in 1974. I married a second time, which was quite a mistake, and finally divorced ten years later. Judy and I were married in 1985 and we recently celebrated our twenty-first wedding anniversary. 

Karen and I had two children, David (J D) and Christine (Chris). J D, born on January 28, 1959, basically spent the first thirty-two years of his life going to school, obtaining bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Chemistry, then a PhD in Spectrometry, an analytical arm of chemistry. He's become an expert in his field lecturing at several universities in numerous European countries.  He has consulted for numerous private firms and branches of the U S Government. He lives in Lake Jackson, TX, and had to evacuate to Dallas last year when one of the hurricanes went through the Gulf. Chris, born on December 28, 1959 passed away in 2001. Chris had two children, Matt, 22 and J M,  20.

By marrying Judy I obtained twin step-daughters, Amy Edwards and Stacy Russell. Amy lives in Lathrop and has two children, Zachary, 5 and Camryn, 3. Stacy lives in a suburb of Chicago and has three children, Cailee, 8, Sean F (Gus), 5 and Doniphan, 3.

As far as our leisure hours are concerned, I'm into wood-working and Judy into quilting.

Judy and I are looking forward to the upcoming June reunion.