of MountainHome, AR

January 7, 1924 - April 17, 2015

Mr. James M. (Jim) Nelms, age 91 of Mountain Home passed away Friday April 17, 2015 in Mountain Home. Jim was born January 7, 1924 in Brookland, AR to Edith (Hayes) Nelms and Gordon B. Nelms. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942. He was accepted for flight training and as an enlisted flight student in 1944. He graduated as an enlisted pilot with the rank of Master Sargent. He always felt like an angel must have been sitting on his shoulders because of the number of close calls he had with death. He received his commercial flight license before leaving active duty in 1946. He worked as a flight and ground school instructor and crop duster for five years before deciding to go back to college.
He joined Phillips Petroleum Co. as a sales representative and rose to division manager in Chicago before being transferred to the west coast as wholesale manager. While he was in Chicago he was the instigator and one of five organizers of the First National Bank of Oak Brook, Illinois. He served as chairman of the board for the first three years of the bank's operation. He was a member of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce. He served two years as Chairman of the Boy Scouts of America Lunch-O-Ree for the petroleum and chemical industries. He served several years as the Chairman of the Illinois Petroleum Council.
He moved to the Mountain Home area in 1977. He met Jessie Mae Cox in 2002 and sixteen months later they were married. He often said the times spent with her were the happiest years of his life.
He is survived by two sons: Jim Nelms and his wife Judy of Kensett, Arkansas
and Terry Gene Nelms and his wife Kristie of Lebanon, TN; one granddaughter, Stacey A. Nelms of Van Nuys, CA and one niece, Tonnette Johnson and husband Paul of Paragould, AR.
He was recently preceded in death by his wife, Jessie Nelms on April 4, 2015.
Visitation will be from 5-7 PM Sunday, April 19, 2015 at Roller Funeral Home. A funeral service conducted by Richard Crawford will be held 10 AM Monday, April 20, 2015 at Roller Funeral Home. Private interment for the family only will follow in Baxter Memorial Gardens.
The family requests in lieu of flowers that memorials may be made to the American Legion Post #52 in Mountain Home.

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