The family will receive guests on Sunday, January 20, 2019 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Griggs Schooler Gordon Funeral Home located at 5400 Bell St. in Amarillo. A graveside service will be held on Monday, January 21, 2019 at 12:00 pm in Dreamland Cemetery located in Canyon; with Scott Edwards, Elder, presiding.
James Allen Ayres was born on January 2, 1928, in Hansford County, Texas, to Ruby Lee
(Bacon) Ayres and James Monroe “J.M.” Ayres. He went to Gruver Public Schools until his senior year of high school at which time he transferred to West Texas High School in Canyon. He was recruited to play basketball there and consequently received admission and a scholarship to attend Amarillo College. He served in the US Air Force and was stationed in Alamogordo, NM, and in England. James farmed in Hansford County growing pinto beans, wheat, corn, cantaloupe, milo, and a variety of other crops during his farming career, retiring in 1974. James also got his pilot’s license and co-owned a plane with Bobby Thompson. He was a talented carpenter, building his home in Canyon, TX, a home in Red River, NM, and designing his own feedlot, all from skills that he learned from his paternal grandfather and other Hansford
County pioneers. He owned and managed the Sportsman’s Lodge in Red River, NM, in the early 1970s.
James was preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Monta Jo Ayres Dalton. He is survived by his wife, Ann Woodward Moe Ayres; four children, Lynn Ayres Crum, Pamela Jo
Ayres Hart (Phil), Roger Allen Ayres (Wendy), Destine Evelyn Moe; a sister, Wanda Val Ayres
Stewart; seven grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren.
The family would like to express their deepest appreciation and thanks to the VA ICU nurses and personnel, BSA Hospice of the Southwest team members, and the care givers of Visiting Angels.
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