Donald Wayne Jessie, 78, of Phoenix, AZ, passed away on January 20, 2014. He was born in DuPont, Indiana at home on a farm. The house he was born in was bought by the government at the beginning of WWII and “Boomed” used as a target for boom testing. At the age of four the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio area where Don lived until he was in the eighth grade. They then moved to a small town in Milan Indiana to a farm (104 acres) until he graduated from Milan High School. After high school, Don attended Purdue University.
Dona got his first industrial job with General Electric. While working as a Detail Draftsman, don answered a call from “Uncle Sam” requesting his service.
Boot Camp was at Fort Knox, KY. After Boot Camp, Don was assigned to Ft. Knox. On May 13, 1959 on his first weekend pass, on his way home (only 110 miles from FT. Knox) a drunk man ran him off the road. He hit the end of a bridge and flipped over into a river bed.
Don was pronounced dead. Don reminisced, he never new why because he remembered every mile of the 90 in the ambulance.
He was in a civilian hospital for five days. The hospital would not let the Army take him into their hospital unless they took me by air. The first time Don ever flew in an aircraft of any kind was with his mouth wired shut, chin cut off (except for a small sliver) nose broken and with a face beat up like a steak tenderizer. He spent the next 58 days in the military hospital. Don would jokingly say that those were the best 58 days in the Army.
This was one of the many miracles that the Lord had worked in Don’s life. He said that he had no pain throughout the whole time.
Don had three major operations in 2005 (two cancer type operations and a hernia) along with many less type surgery and again the Lord saw me through all of these with no pain or discomfort. He took no pain medication of any kind. Don believed that the prayers of his family and members of his church was the answer and of course his own faith in the Lord.
After he got out of the Army in 1960, don went back to work at GE. 1962, GE had a reduction of Employees of 15000. Don relocated to Phoenix March 21, 1962 to work with the GE Computer Plant at Thunderbird as a Detail Draftsman and was promoted to Lab Tech then to Senior Engineering Tech in Research and Development.
GE eventually sold to Honeywell who sold to Bull International. Don had a total of 38 years with these three companies.
When Don moved to Phoenix, he found a church home at Bethany Baptist and was a member of Bethany for 16 years. He visited North Phoenix Baptist Church in March 1979 and joined a week later.
After a few weeks, don made a rededication to the Lord and was re-baptized. He had originally made a profession of faith at the age of 9 and was baptized shortly that in my child like mind, he felt led to be re-baptized with an adult understanding. He became an usher six months after he joined North Phoenix and served in many volunteer positions in the church.
A memorial service will be held at 9am Friday January 24, 2014 at North Phoenix Baptist Church., 5757 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ.
Arrangements under the direction of Sunland Memorial Park, Mortuary & Cremation Center, Sun City, AZ.
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