In Memoriam Jack Carlton Lewis 1938-2005

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Friend Brother Father Grandfather Engineer Outdoorsman

Obituaries

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Jack Carlton Lewis

1938-2005

Funeral services for Mr. Jack Carlton Lewis, 66, of Alexander City (Alabama) will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Chapel of Radney Funeral Home.  Randy Anderson will officiate.   Burial will follow in the Hillview Memorial Park.  The family will receive friends from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, 2005 at Radney Funeral Home. Mr. Lewis died on Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Birmingham.  He was born on Nov. 21, 1938 in River Falls to Samuel Jackson Lewis and Carolyn Wynette Arwood Lewis.  He was an avid outdoorsman and especially enjoyed boating and camping.  He served in the United States Navy from 1961 - 1962 where he worked with intelligence on the U.S.S. Intrepid.  He graduated from Auburn University in 1960 with a degree in Industrial Engineering and worked as an engineer for Russell Corporation and after retirement worked for the Alabama Department of Revenue.  He was also a leader for Explorer Post #69. He is survived by his wife, Claire Mixon Lewis of Alexander City; sons Michael Carlton Lewis and wife Phoebe of Alexandria, Va., Erik Jackson Lewis of Alexander City and Lee Patrick Lewis and wife Vicki of Alexander City; grandsons, Daniel Lewis and Levi Lewis both of Alexander City and David Carlton Lewis of Alexandria, Va.; brothers Samuel Jackson Lewis of Andalusia and Donald Arwood Lewis of Greenville and his special buddy (pet), Scooter. Flowers will be accepted or memorial contributions may be given to the American Heart Association, 722 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX, 75321; American Lung Association, 1740 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 or to Children's Harbor, One Our Children's Hwy., Children's Harbor, Alabama 35010. Memorial messages may be sent to the family at www.radneyfuneralhome.com. Radney Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

The red clay hills of Alabama Know Jack Carlton well. He's walked them and he's ridden them More than time can tell.  I knew him in his Springtime When he tried to show me how To shoot a bucking shot gun and laughed to see me scowl. When it almost knocked me over from my shoulder to the ground, Trying to scare his girly cousin with its ferocious sound. Carolyn let him roam the hills and I tagged along to see what adventure could befall us from doing a daring deed. They took me to the drive-in, those 'ol country boys and blew smoke into my long hair it was one of their joys. Then in the blackest midnight we drove down to the pond to look for bottle fishes that floated in the fronds. We pushed out the old boat to the water dark & deep and rowed the eerie pond to where the bottles seep. Then suddenly from somewhere a splash is what we heard, "Aw: said brave old Carlton, "It was just a bird". But then another  splash rocked the boat around and Carlton grabbed the paddle and rowed for higher ground. It was just that 'ol beaver S.J. laughed when he heard Settin' on the bank a howling, that he'd gotten ya'll so scared. When his foot caught a fish hook, he cut it out with a knife and we rode horses bareback at his friends', we were a sight. Once I walked with him on beaches when we thought that we were grown, and we smoked Pall Mall cigarettes and talked of things unknown, like what we would do with life as we stood at its door,and we turned our backs on Springtime, it was gone forevermore..

Poem in Tribute to Jack "Carlton" Lewis   by  his cousin, Paula Populorum