James D. Mack

James Douglas Mack was known by many names but the one name he will always bear is Child of God. Born to his parents here on earth 8/19/1966 in Lincoln; NE and returned to sender 8/18/2025 to be delivered back to his parents, Bill and Ann Mack. James influenced his parents to begin going to church by asking them if they would take him, and they listened to his wishes as they always did. He recalled going to Alice’s Restaurant after church and noted that he loved their roast beef.

Jimmy, as his parents, family and friends affectionately called him, is the 3rd child of 4. Bill and Ann parented all of these beautiful children together through the highlights and troubled times while continuing to love and support each other as a family. Jimmy said of his family, “we really never fought”.

Barbie Bodfield is the older, bossy sister as she refers to herself lovingly and her husband Russ. They have 3 children Angela, Ronni, and Rusty with 7 grandchildren that she loves dearly.

Jeff Mack is the 2nd oldest, who preceded James in death at the young age of 37 in 1999. James noted Jeff to be musically influential to him while discovering his own genre of music. James purchased a KISS album Alive! hoping to impress Jeff only to find that Jeff preferred Rod Stewart.

Dan Mack is the youngest and has 3 children; Adan, Alora, and Avary. James and Dan would enjoy friendly attempts to tease one another. James used his artistic knowledge of forced perspective to a water tower and would tease Dan about the tower shrinking and growing as they traveled to Elkhorn, NE to see Grandma Marie and Grandpa Fritz Paasch. They also tried to get each other to eat absurd food items, such as a lightning bug and cat food, among others. Dan and James bonded through music and art and even had a band together. As James had said, “those were the good times”! He continued those endeavors with other bands including Bob and John Hicken and Bob and Mike Wright.

James noted that he was influenced by his mother, Ann Marie Mack as an artist. Ann was blessed with her two sisters, James’ aunts, Barb Hendricks and Linda Kwapniowski, and their husbands, George and Rich. Rich preceded James in death. While it is true that Ann was a phenomenal cartographer she also taught James to play. He often spoke of playing games together with his mom, one in particular they would play in the snow was called Fox and Geese. James would carry on those traditions of playing and interacting with our kids and our 9 grandchildren.

James also noted being shaped by his dad, Billie Rae Mack. Bill's mom, Grandma Fern, had often attended holiday events with the family. Grandpa Ethos Mack had passed away ten years before James was born. Although he did not state how he was affected, I have observed for 35 years what I believe Bill modeled to his son. Bill saw the community as his 2nd family and had unconditional love for the world. James did not always understand the world but he always gave people his time listening to their story and trying to empathize with their history. James extended this example when he wrote about his youth and the names some of his peers used to call him like Jelly Belly and Big Mac. He found other peers though who called him friend like Steve Malcom, Mike Wright, and Charles Bolby; all deceased; or Dan and Richard Bretta. He often stated that he was bullied a lot, noting they were just jealous. He used the humorous phrase to help him “I was too cool for them to handle” with laughter following and then he would say seriously, they had problems. It was then that he would extend some forgiveness and empathy to them. James loved people unconditionally as his dad influenced him to do.

James would go out into his neighborhood to get to know his community using Saturdays and Sundays to organize his peers in the neighborhood or be a part of the group with the Dunns, Eric and Bob Glade, and the Darcy clan trying to create a film production as good as Jaws, his favorite movie, or an amusement park like Worlds of Fun. He also spent his time trying to recruit people into the service going door to door or selling cinnamon toothpicks or plums. James commented he liked to work so he could make money. But he also loved to play. He said he loved hanging out with his cousins, Susie and Debbie. Debbie would precede James in death. James was surrounded by numerous cousins and was saddened by losing touch with them. Some of his dad’s family members we rarely saw but their role they had played in James’ life was a reflection of the love his family had for one another. These people were James’ Uncles, Dave and Steve being Bill’s brothers, and Bill’s sister Aunt Deanna and her husband Gary Bowns and their children including Penny Lukefahr. Penny was very supportive of James’ dad, Bill, getting to visit Deanna last summer.

I believe loving others unconditionally is something that we shared together and why we met at a place of work in Health and Human Services. His client who was deaf referred to James’ name as a peace sign and another person called him Jimbo. He worked with individuals whom he actively helped to harness hobbies and goals for their life. His boss knew that James was more of a doer than a talker and always said that if James had something to say you knew it was important, and you better listen.

We also share our beautiful and dynamic 8 children Georgia, Jasymine, Bobbi Sue, D., Natasha, Saylor, Alison, and Olivia. James extended his love several times. Once by adopting Georgia, Jasymine, and Bobbi Sue and another time by being the first to suggest that we adopt our foster grandchildren Olivia and Alison to make them a permanent part of our family as our children.

James was very active in participating in our family activities in a variety of ways. He worked with me to ensure that our children did not have to have babysitters. He attended many family and school activities, played games, went to movies, yearly or more family vacations, eating out, taking kids to concerts, going on scavenger hunts to locate concert activities, checking out winter storm damage to stay warm after losing electricity, playing at Platte River State Park and staying in a teepee that we all called the “sleepee” when it was raining where we shared skits, singing and playing instruments together, writing stories, doing models, painting, drawing, coloring, doing crafts, decorating for the holidays, riding amusement park rides, and staying with some of the kids so one child could do a special event. He tried to make the most of every day with his family as well. James also realized that the job of a parent also meant not being well liked sometimes and that was hard for him. He did not like feeling assertive. He would turn to using humor and saying “you don’t like me well I guess I am doing my job right”. The list is endless and for that we are all truly blessed.

When James and I first met I realized that we shared music and art as hobbies and talents. James was in a band at the time and there was a time I wanted to be a professional songwriter and singer. I wanted children and felt that to be a good parent they required more time than I would have as a singer. After we began living together, he spent more hours away from me and my children so I asked if he wanted us more than the band. James chose us and my nickname for him would forever be Jammer. He continued to play guitar and enjoy music. Our family has a lot of good memories of those times. He loved color and spent time painting, coloring posters, and putting models together. James was a collector as well. He collected movies, models, and toys and so much more. He stored his memories in the items he purchased about others and his life. He used to walk miles to collect cans to earn money to spend on our children so they could have more. James and I both loved working together to make others happy and live happy, joyous lives. He allowed others to be themselves no matter how difficult things got. James and I along with our family members worked together and volunteered in a variety of ways. James was always very supportive of these ventures I organized. He encouraged me to be more as I did for him and so he became John and I became Mary. We spoke our English accents together and with our children. We played and enjoyed our time together. I slowly saw us evolving into this shared entity where we taught each other new behaviors and values. We call that LOVE.

James said of his art that, “I like to work in a pen because it is permanent, and he learned to work through his mistakes”. I believe it is that thought process that helped James many times to work through his problems. He almost died 10 years ago but thanks to the donor and so many other people including many mysterious visits from a woman named Marie, James got a transplant June 5, 2014. In 2023 he had pulmonary edema in the middle of the night and thanks to Alison who phoned 911 we got more time. We got more time together as a family and bestfriends/spouses. He used humor to get through spending an entire weekend with other families at a Girl Scout family camp by renaming himself Nigel with his name tag. We used humor to get us through the rough times just as our parents taught us to do.

In my heart I will always think of him as being like James the fisherman who demonstrated the willingness to leave his career and family to follow Jesus and that is why he is James to me for now and ever.

Memorials are to be designated to; The League of Human Dignity and The Lincoln Parks and Recreation Adaptive Program.