Jack Day

Jack Merlin Day, Iola, passed away Saturday, June 23, 2012, at Allen County Hospital in Iola. He was 86.

Jack was born in Wamego on Feb. 22, 1926, the son of Paul and Pearl (Cooper) Day. Jack grew up in Wamego and attended Topeka schools. In 1945 he met LaVaughn (Carlson) and they married in Topeka. Shortly after their marriage Jack enlisted in the United States Army, he was stationed in various places overseas and served for six years. 

LaVaughn and Jack were blessed with four children: John, Kathy, Mike and Sheila. Later the couple divorced and Jack remained in Topeka, where he worked as a mechanic in a cement plant. In March 1964 he met and married Joan Bailey in Emporia, and in this union two children, Theresa (Terry) and Sue Fuller, joined Jack’s family. Jack and Joan also had one daughter, Becky Day. In 1967 the couple moved their family to Yates Center, where Jack bought the ready-mix plant. In 1971 he purchased the lumber yard in Yates Center. Joan preceded him in death on March 21, 1991. 

In 1991, he met Ina Stapleton in Yates Center, and they were married in Miami, Okla., in 2011. Jack retired in 1997 and soon after he and Ina moved to rural Iola, where he remained until his death. 

Jack was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Joan in 1991, a son John in 2004, three brothers, Neal, Dean and Donald Day, and two sisters, Polly and Helen Fern. He is survived by his wife; his children, Terry and husband Lloyd (Buster) Black, Kathy Day, Topeka, Michael and Dana Day, Yates Center, Sue and Jim Vernon, Yates Center, Sheila and husband Doug Musil, Eskridge, and Becky Hinshaw and husband Bill, Neodesha; two brothers, Dale and Bob Daym, Topeka; a sister, Diana and husband Frank Fisher, Topeka; a sister- and brother-in-law, Karleen and Ted Piper, Utah; 17 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren and by many other nieces and nephews and relatives and friends. 

Services for Jack will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Calvary Episcopal Church in Yates Center. The family will meet with friends from 6 to 7 this evening at the church.

Memorials are suggested to The Allen County Animal Rescue Facility or Calvary Episcopal Church and may be sent in care of Campbell Funeral Home P.O. Box 188 Yates Center, KS 66783.