James "Jim" Earnest Mendenhall

Funeral for James Earnest (Jim) Mendenhall, 87, of Yakima will be Saturday, July 19, at 11 a.m. at Summit View Church of Christ with Kevin Jensen officiating and Keith & Keith Funeral Home directing. Graveside service will be Monday, July 21, at 10 a.m. at Terrace Heights Memorial Park. Jim died Friday, June 27, at home, “an old man and satisfied with life” (like Abraham in Genesis 25:8).

Pallbearers will be Jack Campbell, Ryan Ferguson, Johnny Gallegos, Eric Garcia, Rich Lamb, and Sean LaRoche. Honorary pallbearers will be Walt Ranta and Gerry Sentel.

Jim was born April 19, 1938, in Pocatello, Idaho, where he was adopted at birth by James Orian and Frances Naomi Eckenrode Mendenhall. (Jim later learned that his maternal grandfather had immigrated from Denmark in 1883.) The family moved to Eugene, Ore., in the early 1940s, where Orian was a machinist for Southern Pacific Railroad. Jim credited Mrs. Taliaferro, his third-grade teacher at Stella Mcgladry School near their home on Crest Drive, for her persistence in teaching him to read. Jim attended Wilson Junior High School and graduated in 1956 from (South) Eugene High School, where he took shop and an all-boys cooking class “just so we could eat hot dogs and corn dogs.” That fall, Jim rode the train to Bartlesville, Okla., to attend Central (now Oklahoma) Christian College; there he met Mary Jo Bigham, a sophomore from St. John, Kans. Orian officiated at their wedding in St. John on Sept. 6, 1957.

In early 1958, they moved to Des Moines, Wash., and got jobs at Boeing, Jim in the tool shop and Mary Jo in the office. Jim’s paternal Uncle Dean encouraged the couple (and baby Pam) to move to Southern California, which they did in 1959, living in Artesia and then Long Beach (and adding Doug, Jan, and Ann to the family). Jim worked at Shell Oil Company and sold Rainbow vacuum cleaners before working at Nalco Chemical Company.

Jim was baptized when he was 12 by his dad and started preaching when the minister at Tenth and Washington Church of Christ in Eugene loaded his Hudson with teenage boys on Saturday afternoons to practice their sermons at various places. Jim and his young family began attending North Long Beach Church of Christ in 1960; he became a deacon in 1961 and volunteered to preach when the minister got sick; he also preached at Salton Sea. When a representative from Bear Valley School of Preaching in Denver, Colo., visited North Long Beach, elder Fred Smith encouraged Jim to attend: “If you’ve got any talent and don’t use it, you’ll be held accountable to God.” In January 1968, the family moved to Denver so Jim could complete the two-year program; while there, Jim preached in Estes Park and Evergreen, Colo., and Stratton, Neb. In January 1970, Jim was hired full-time in Dos Palos, Calif.; he also preached in Modesto, Calif., Albany, Ore., Yakima, Wash., and Vallejo, Calif., before retiring in April 2000. After traveling around the country with their travel trailers, Jim and Mary Jo returned to Yakima that summer and became members at Summit View Church of Christ, where Jim was honored to serve as an elder for six years.

Jim loved the church and the Bible, and he was serious about God and faith. He was a self-taught Bible scholar and student of the Restoration Movement of the early 1800s. He labored to make Bible teachings simple and easy to understand, and he created pre-PowerPoint transparencies to display on an overhead projector on Sunday mornings. “It’s interesting that with my lack of ability in spelling and English, that I can look at a passage of scripture, outline it in my head, and see key words,” he said. Jim identified books of the Bible by key words, such as believe for John and thanksgiving for Colossians. His favorite book was Habakkuk and his favorite passage was Philippians 4:4-7. Beginning with Dos Palos in 1970, Jim kept track in a small black book names and dates of 60 weddings and 176 funerals he officiated over more than 50 years; similar to Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, Jim opted to not record names and dates of baptisms.

Jim enjoyed the outdoors, including visiting historic sites and camping in the Redwoods and on the Northern California and Oregon coasts. He loved woodworking and spent hours in the garage and later in his shop building a pool table, cedar chests, rolltop desks, rocking horses, jewelry boxes, coat stands out of old ball bats, and model cars, trucks, and trains. After remodeling their 1920s stucco bungalow, Jim built fences, roofed houses, remodeled kitchens, and did other minor construction projects. He grew tomatoes and tended his roses, watched “Gunsmoke” and “The Rockford Files,” and never turned down Jell-O or a bowl of homemade ice cream.

Jim was disciplined, fastidious, organized, particular, humble, quiet, honorable, and willing to help. He was faithful to his God, to his wife, to his family, and to the church.

Jim is survived by his wife, “Sweetheart,” and best friend of 67-plus years, Mary Jo Mendenhall; four children, Pam Mendenhall of Yakima, Doug (Janet) Mendenhall of Abilene, Tex., Jan Mendenhall of Madras., Ore., and Ann (Chris) Klingele of Wapato, Wash.; seven grandchildren, Jake (Kait) Mendenhall of Portland, Ore., Hart Mendenhall of Eureka, Calif., Brooks Mendenhall of Chattanooga, Tenn., Samuel Cade Mendenhall of Dallas, Tex., Justin Klingele of Wapato, Hailey Grace Mendenhall of Denton, Tex., and Caitlin Klingele of Wapato; one great-grandson, Ezra Mendenhall of Eureka; one brother, Alan Mendenhall of California; two cousins, Kathy Lake Hering of Royse City, Tex., and John Charles Free of Longview, Tex., and countless brothers and sisters in an extended church family.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Eastern European Mission (eem.org), P.O. Box 55245, Hurst, TX 76054, or Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort (disasterrelief.org), P.O. Box 111180, Nashville, TN 37222.

The family appreciates the tender, capable, and respectful care provided to Jim at home for 10 weeks – and an extra thank you for guiding us through Jim’s final 10 days – by MultiCare Home Health & Hospice, especially from Maria, the primary nurse to “the Preacher Man,” and her fellow nurses, Brandi, Marisa, and Alyssa.

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