James Dye

August 13, 1928 – August 26, 2026

James Dye, 98, of Mosheim passed away Wednesday, August 26th, at Greeneville Community Hospital.

There were early signs that Jim Dye was an exceptional human being. At the age of twelve, he pulled his father from a tractor fire, saving his life. A year later, he was driving a truck, helping to support the family in the wake of the Great Depression. As the first of his family to attend college, he earned a degree in industrial arts at the University of Alabama. There he met and married (February 4, 1950) the great love of his life, his wife of 71 years. After a tour of duty in Korea (first lieutenant, forward observer, later retiring from the army reserves as a lieutenant colonel), they were rarely out of each other’s company. He became one of the Alabama Rocket Boys, working for Thiokol Chemical Corporation at Red Stone Arsenal, then took a job with Moore-Handley in Birmingham, Alabama, and next in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1969 the family relocated to Greeneville, where he worked for Quality Machine Tools, later acquiring Superior Metal Products and then founding LectroChem Metal Finishing. He was a devoted family man, a hardworking businessman, and, in his spare time, a farmer with an enviable green thumb. There was never an obstacle for which he couldn’t engineer a solution, always with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. He loved a challenge. An avid reader, particularly of history, he was a gifted storyteller, with a rich history of his own to draw upon.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Montie Blakeney; by his parents, Ira V. and Susie Elizabeth Dye; and by his brothers Lloyd T. Dye, Kenneth Wayne Dye,and Charles Boyd Dye.

He is survived by his children: Julia (Steven) Hensley, Pamela (Michael) Doty, Linda (Johnny) Smith, Celia (Andy) Smith, and James (Jeffrey Davis) Dye, Jr.; grandchildren: Atticus (Caroline) Hensley, Leila (Dave) Jackson, John Smith, Benjamin Hensley, Erin

(Steve) Schultz, Geoffrey (Liv) Pratt, Isaac (Christy) Doty, Ira Pratt, Sarah Lister, and Rachel (Devon Morrissey) Lister; great-grandchildren: Stephanie Hensley, Maren Jackson, Sam Schultz, Evelyn Fox, Zetta Schultz, Louisa Jackson, Andrew Doty, Patrick

Doty, and Keziah Smith; and many beloved nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Lighthouse Assembly of God, September 10th at 1:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, Blue Ridge Conservancy, or Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.