James (Jim) S. Hendrix

HENDRIX- James (Jim) S. Hendrix passed away April 30, 2011, after a one-month illness. He is survived by his wife Jeanne. Jim said she was his best friend and the most important person in his life. His sister, Elinor Dayley, lives with her son in Stafford, Virginia. Jim was born in 1925 in Lane, Kansas. He moved often during the depression to small towns in southeastern Kansas served by the Missouri Pacific Railroad. His favorite town was Aliceville, population of about 100, where his father was the railroad station agent. There, he attended grade school, where classes for all eight grades were held in one room. Jim believed he benefited from this education because he could listen to the upper grades being taught. Jim attended high school at Westphalia, Kansas, and on briefly to Kansas State College at Manhattan before joining the U.S. Merchant Marines. For four years during World War II, he served on oil tankers in both the Pacific and Atlantic war zones. He was on the first American tanker to Poland after the English secured the Kiel Canal in Germany and the Russians occupied the Baltic Sea ports in Poland. At war’s end, Jim enrolled at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, Missouri. This ended when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. As sergeant, he served as a medic in Korea until the war ended. He returned to college at Rolla on the GI Bill, receiving a BS degree in mining engineering. While in school, he worked one summer for the Missouri Geologic Survey, conducting a detailed magnetic survey of Pea Ridge, a remote area near Sullivan, Missouri. Pea Ridge was later mined and proved to be the site of the largest known high-grade magnetite deposit in the world. Jim’s other employment included petroleum geologist with Texaco, Inc.; oil and gas consultant (Hendrix & McLain, Inc.); and geologist with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, all in South Louisiana. When the Survey reorganized, he was transferred to the U.S. Minerals Management Service in Washington, D.C., which relocated to Herndon, Virginia. Jim was Chief of the Resource Assessment Section before retiring and moving to Albuquerque in 1990. Besides his wife, Jeanne, and sister, Elinor, Jim leaves four stepchildren, Jim, Deanne, John and Todd Pauley; four step-grandchildren, Quinn, Caitlin, Luna and Evie Pauley; one nephew, Carson Dayley. Memorial Services will be held at 11:00 am, Friday, May 6, 2011, Daniels Family Funeral Services, Sara Road Chapel, 4310 Sara Road SE and Meadowlark Lane (located inside Vista Verde Memorial Park), Rio Rancho, NM 87124. Interment will follow the services at Vista Verde Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made in James’s name to Joy Junction, P.O. Box 26568, Albuquerque, NM 87125, 505- 217-9586 or St. Martin’s Hospitality Center, P.O. Box 27258, Albuquerque, NM 87125, 505-242-4399. Mr. Hendrix’s care has been entrusted to: Daniels Family Funeral Services ~ Sara Road Chapel 4310 Sara Road SE Rio Rancho, New Mexico 87124 505-892-9920