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Jim McKnight
Afton
Jim McKnight of Afton, Iowa, passed away at Every step Greater Regional Hospice House in Creston, Iowa on December 28, 2021. A celebration of life service will be held 10 a.m. Monday, January 3, 2022, at Powers Funeral Home 612 North Dodge in Afton, Iowa. Rev Jim Morris will officiate the service. The service will be live streamed at www.powersfh.com (link under events). Burial will be at Greenlawn Cemetery in Afton. Open visitation will Sunday, January 2, 2022, from 1-5 with family receiving friend from 3-5 in Afton. Memorials may be made in his name to the Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation or to the East Union Activity Boosters. Online condolence may be given at www.powersfh.com.
James Mikell McKnight, III, son of James Mikell McKnight, Jr., and Mary (Pierce), was born on August 4, 1943, in Roswell, NM. Jim was raised on a ranch northwest of Roswell. He graduated from Roswell High School in 1961. After high school he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, TX for two years, he then transferred to New Mexico State University and graduated with a degree in ag economics. While attending college he met his wife Laurie Lee Laney and they later married on June 12, 1965, in Corona, NM. After getting married he and Laurie moved to Estancia, NM and he began working for Farmers Home Administration, while working for FHA he transferred to numerous locations in AZ including Casa Grande and Snowflake. In 1974 they moved to San Simon, AZ and started farming.
In 1984 Jim transferred to Creston, Iowa to manage the FHA office and he and Laurie purchased a farm north of Afton. He chose Iowa to transfer to, by seeing the last center pivot and then drove 100 miles north. In 1986 Jim began a farm crisis bank consulting business until 1997 when he began farming and raising pigs full time with his son Sam until his Parkinson’s diagnosis which mainly limited his work to the books and finances of the farming operation.
Jim was a member of the Union County Farm Bureau Jim served in numerous county positions. He also served as a District 9 Iowa Farm Bureau Director from 2005-2014. Jim was a member of Iowa Pork Producer.
Jim is survived by his wife Laurie of Afton, two sons, Larry (Lori) McKnight of Polk City and Sam (Jill) McKnight of Afton; grandchildren, Beth, Noelle, Colton, Savannah and Jamie; brother Bill McKnight of Breckenridge, TX; sisters Marianne Rankin of Abilene, TX and Polly Tomlinson of Dallas, TX; brother-in-law Pat (Fran) Laney of Santa Fe, NM and Mike Laney of Shady Point, OK; along with other extended relatives and a host of friends. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, sister-in-law Bobbie McKnight and brother-in-law Max Tomlinson.