Joseph Earl Farnsworth

John 15 No Greater Love

A Celebration of Life service for Joseph Earl Farnsworth, age 95, of Tyler, Texas will be held Saturday, November 16 at 2:pm at Tyler Memorial Funeral Home, www.tylermemorial.com

Earl was the first in his family to graduate high school and he passed along his respect and love of knowledge to his descendants by reading to them and playing games. He was also athletic, first a basketball player in high school at Danville, AR to his last 30 years of league bowling in Tyler, TX. He also earned the title of Master Gardner in Tyler, a designation long overdue, given his life-long labor of love in his gardens, some as large as a football field. But, other than his beloved family, Earl’s crowning glory in this life was music. He and his brothers, Glen and Clayton, delighted themselves and audiences for more than half their lifetimes with Glen, the mandolin, Clayton, the fiddle, and Earl, the steel guitar. He played the steel guitar for 75 years at a mastery level across all music genres. He was the inspiration and teacher to his children and grandchildren across all these areas of personal creativity and interest. His nurturing produced several musicians and vocalists, a few top-notch bowlers and basketball players, a couple of authors, a school principal, a U.S. Army Veteran and gardens in most of their backyards.

His first career began as a hardware store clerk for Arkansas State Senator Joe Ray in Danville, AR from which he was promoted to manage the Highway 10 hatchery for Yell County’s first chicken hatchery. Subsequently, he was a key manager in the design and build of the new hatchery in Danville when Wayne Farms bought it, and he continued managing that facility until 1972. He then moved to Springdale, AR and worked first as a cabinet builder, a skill with which he blessed many friends and family members with new kitchen cabinetry. While he lived in Springdale, Mozark Fire Extinguisher Company offered him the Russellville to Fort Smith territory manager route and he sold and serviced commercial fire extinguishers across the Arkansas River Valley area until his retirement in 1995 when he moved to Tyler to be near his son, Martin, who’d settled here with his wife and baby boy. But his final career move was once again as a hardware store clerk, this time for Kirkpatrick Hardware in Gresham, from which he finally retired at age 85.

Joseph Earl Farnsworth was preceded in death by the first great love of his life, Elva Dean Bland (1931-1965) and their grandson, Benjamin Heath Lane (1974-2018). He is survived by the last love of his life, Melba, who made his golden years shine, and his grateful children; Joel (Greta), Gail (Ronnie), Leah (Buddy), Martin (Sandy) and David; David’s mother, Simmie, and her daughters Priscilla, Rachel, Michelle, and Susie. He also leaves behind five beloved grandchildren: Brannon (April), Rebecca (Bernie), Austin (Sylvia), Olivia and Ethan and two precious great-granddaughters, Emerson and Adeline.

His parents, Martin and Annie (Webb) Farnsworth of Scott County and Yell County Arkansas, along with his brothers, Walter, Ongie Loy, Glen, Clayton and all other ancestral relatives, save one maternal first cousin, Faye of San Dimas, CA. also preceded him in death.

*A graveside interment ceremony is planned for May 2025, Russell Cemetery, Belleville, AR.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation can be made directly to the following:

-St Jude’s Children’s Hospital www.stjude.org or

-The Greater Tyler Youth Bowling Scholarship Fund, PO Box 549, Chandler, TX 75758