Jesse Earnest

Jesse "Windy" Earnest was born March 21, 1930 on the Earnest farm S.E. of Pleasanton, Kansas, the son of Raymond and Jessie Rosamond (Holmes) Earnest. His mother died at his birth and he lived with his grandmother Ella (Jackson) Earnest, Priestly in Butler, Missouri until 1938, when he came back to the farm to live with his father. He learned to trap and sell fur and hunt coon, a sport he later enjoyed with his children and grandchildren. He attended school at the Walnut Valley School and Pleasanton High School for a year, and Sunday school at Fairmount church. He worked on the farm with his brother Kenneth until his marriage to Ola May Callahan on December 6th 1950. In 1951 he was called into the U.S. Army and served his country in Korea until 1953. He continued to farm in the community and in 1955 bought the Henry Beggs farm where he lived until his death on March 24, 2009 at the age of 79 years. Jesse and Ola May were the parents of five children, Jesse Lee, Linda Kay, Billy Joe, Rodney and Diana. They were blessed with eleven grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren, which they loved and enjoyed for fifty eight years. He was a member of the local VFW and Local 101 Operators Union. He was a loader operator for List and Clark at the LaCygne Power Plant and Bill's Coal Company before retiring in 1995. He loved to go to auctions and collect antique's, and trade with the Mennonites. He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, John and Kenneth Earnest, step-mother Bertha (Nevius) Hinton, Earnest. He is survived by his wife, Ola May, Jesse Lee, Linda and Craig Wood, Bill Earnest, Rod and Robin Earnest, Diane and Wayne Schasteen, grandchildren, Christy and Chris Nickelson, Mound City, Sonny and Andrea Earnest, Broken Arrow, OK, Misty Earnest, Hawaii, Bobby Daugherty, Ft. Scott, Malayna Howard, Mound City, Ginny and Jeff Scott, Mound City, Jamie and Jerried Hall, Mound City, Stacy Earnest, Mound City, Wendy and Brian Collier, Mound City, Daniel Earnest, Wichita, and Lyndsey Pruitt, Pleasanton, sixteen great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews and many friends. Services will be held at 2:00 PM, Thursday, March 26, 2009 at the Coffel-Schneider Chapel, Pleasanton, KS. Visitation will be from 1:00 PM until service time. Contributions are suggested to Hospice. Interment will be in the Littell Cemetery, Pleasanton, Kansas. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.coffelschneider.com