James Kenneth Liles

Services for James Kenneth Liles who passed away peacefully on September 22, 2017 at will be held at the Emerald Bay Community Church on Tuesday, September 26 at 11:00 A.M. with the Rev. Darrell Dunks officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church.

He is survived by his loving wife Frances Faith Liles, his loving daughter, Melissa Victoria Copeland and loving son Edward Glenn Liles. He will be joining his oldest son James Steven Liles in Heaven. He was the last of the Liles clan of 1409 North Queen four brothers Ben, Sam, Pete, Dave and two sisters Bess and Patricia, who has now come full circle to be with his siblings. He has left behind a legacy of grandchildren and great grandchildren who were honored to be around "Papa". Their names are too many to mention here. We will all miss him.

Ken just celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary with Fran on September 2 of this year. He and Fran were members at Emerald Bay Church community and taught, ushered and did good works to spread God's word.

He was born in 1924 and lived in East Texas Palestine-Jacksonville area for his younger years. He loved sports, hunting, fishing, and music. He went into the U. S. Navy in 1942 where he served as a Lieutenant and captained tan LST in the Pacific campaign of WWII. After the service he entered into the University of Texas and studied geology. It was there he met a young lady who stole his heart, my mom Frances. They were married in 1947. He graduated in 1949 and started a family. Ken went to work for Lone Star Gas stayed there for 30 years and went to Transco Energy. He mentored many young geologists throughout his career. He never lost his love for hunting and fishing and golf and managed to find time for all of them while keeping the home fires burning. Ken phased out of working around 1989.

Dad was a very thoughtful person with a kind word to say to everyone he met and he never met a stranger. He was very active in all parts of life. He and mom loved to dance and they "wooed" us kids well into their 60's. They were a couple in love until his dying day. He would shower her with affection and you could see the "spark" in their eye whenever one saw the other. He was a great father and passed on many "lessons to be learned" to his children. He was an even better grandfather to his grand-children and great grand-children telling them stories and listening to theirs.

My sister and I were very lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful father. We love you dad and will miss you. You leave a hole in our hearts but we know you are in a better place. We will always love you.