of Greenbrier, AR

February 23, 1942 - November 10, 2019

John Clayton Reedy of Greenbrier went to be with the Lord on November 10, 2019.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Howe Reedy and his daughter Kay Atchley, son-in-law Billy Atchley, and 2 grandsons Logan Atchley and Connor Atchley, all from Greenbrier.
He was born February 23, 1943 in the Sharon community outside of Naylor AR (Faulkner county) to the late T.D. (Tom) Reedy and Noreen Graham Reedy.

John was a Baptist and was a member of Lifesong Baptist Church in Greenbrier. He served in the National Guard and was honorably discharged in January 1970.

John had many aunts and uncles and was one of 8 children, so he had a large family including his dear wife, daughter, son-in-law, grandsons, many cousins, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, all who he loved dearly.

John made many friends from his days in school, his work, and even through his last days. He kept many of his relationships current, by meeting with his Conway High School buddies every Monday morning at Julie's Sweet Shop, meeting with his Forestry friends for a monthly lunch, taking Mary on weekend trips with their friends and dinners with friends, and talking on the phone. John and Mary also loved their neighbors, who have become life-long friends.

His favorite place was anywhere as long as it was by Mary's side, who he said was the smartest person he ever met. But if he had to truly pick his most favorite place on the planet it would be down on Lake Ouachita at Mt. Harbor resort. Our family had many wonderful times there. He had many favorite pastimes. He loved music, and has about 5,000 songs on his iPod. John and Mary have a shop in back of their house where John spent lots of time fiddling with anything with an engine or anything mechanical, like his lawnmower and ATV. And he would build mechanical items for Mary's many hobbies. He loved working on cars and trucks since he was a kid, and he particularly loved how the engines and bodies changed over the years. Motor Trend was his favorite magazine. He also has built many pieces of furniture which are in use today in his home and Kay's and Billy's home. He loved being on a tractor, but the tractor had to be retired when he and Mary moved into a subdivision, which is when he truly discovered how much he loved being on a lawnmower and manicuring every facet of his yard to make it picture perfect.

He was also a great storyteller, and always had the family laughing and chiming in, but leaving us wondering, did that really happen? He loved to hear a good joke and was great at embellishing it in a re-telling.
John started working at age 13, and had many, many jobs in his life. An early notable job in the '60's was that he worked in the missile silos around central Arkansas 24x7. And in the early '70's he led a boat sales and repair shop for a while. He had lots of stories about those jobs. He had a passion for working on cars and was well known around Faulkner County for it he worked on many vehicles for friends and family. Eventually he put that passion and skill to good use when he was hired by the Arkansas Forestry Commission. He worked there for a few years, then worked for Elrod construction and land surveying a few years (many more stories came from this job), then moved back to the Forestry Commission. Most of his years in the Forestry were with the Rural Fire Division where he was a Rural Fire Protection Coordinator. He helped form and organize many of the Rural Fire Department programs in the state of Arkansas. His main role was to work with the local volunteer fire departments to personally understand their needs, and then find the firetrucks and equipment that would fill the need. He has received numerous awards of achievement from the state and has received many plaques and certificates of appreciation from rural fire departments across the state. He loved his work and always said his blood ran Forestry green.
John's family and friends will miss him greatly.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial at http://www.arfallenfirefighters.org/ or mail to Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial, P.O. Box 56470, Little Rock, AR 72215.

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