Jake Charles Pixley was born on June 15, 1919 in Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. As a boy, he relocated with his family to Jackson Parish. He was a skilled welder and flame cutter at the paper mill in Hodge, adjacent to Jonesboro. He worked at the SOUTHERN ADVANCE BAG & PAPER Company. That is where he met Vivian Wherland, with whom he had a son, named Charles Wayne Pixley, who was born in 1939.
In 1943, when Charles was about four years old, and World War II was in full swing, Jake was 24, married, and in the Army. "Private Pixley" had enlisted two years before and, in 1941, inserted his mother's name, "Mary Lou Pixley," for the emergency contact.
Jake was the child of Mark and "Ludia" (Mary Lou) Pixley. He had three siblings: Dorothy, Maxine and Lavelle. On the 1930 census, he was "age 10," and named as "J.C." His parents were farmers. The Pixleys lived at Homer, in Claiborne Parish in 1930. Jake is on the 1920 census, but he was only seven months old, and then he was an only child. His grandfather, Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Pixley, was still alive in 1930; he died in 1947.
Jake's sister Dorothy was born in 1921. His sister Maxine was born in 1923. His brother Lavelle was born in 1927.
When Jake went to Houston in 1941 to enlist in the Army, he was not the husband of Vivian. With his wife JACKIE, he had a son named Lancelot, called Lanny, born in 1941.
The "family anecdotes" (from the wife & sister-in-law of Charles Wayne Pixley) suggest that Jake simply abandoned Vivian and Charles. There is no marriage certificate for Jake, either for Vivian or Jackie. We take it simply on credit that Jake was ever married to either woman. Jackie was in his life, however (we can ascertain that much) from 1941 onwards. They had three children: Lanny, Lejeune (daughter June, born 1943) and Jake Charles, Jr. (born 1948.)
In 1955, we see Jake, aged 36, and Jackie and their children living in Illinois, where Jake worked in a "Delta Tank" factory.
When Jake's granddaughter Lisa Michelle Pixley was about nine years old (in 1968) Jake died but not before he reconnected with Charles and gave Lisa Michelle a few memories of her grandfather. She remembers Jake helping them move out of the "Holt" apartments on Florida Blvd in Baton Rouge, and remembers eating at Jake's restaurant in downtown Baton Rouge.
Jake's last known residence was 200 Mayflower Avenue, in Baton Rouge. This is in the neighborhood of the diner he and Jackie owned and operated, according to Lisa Michelle, on or near Nicholson Drive at the I-10 overpass.
Jake's obituary was published on May 5, 1968 in the Shreveport Times. It stated that he left behind two sons, Lanny Pixley and (misprinted) "Charles Tixley." Strangely, there was not a mention of June or JC Junior.
Next post will be about Jake's father Mark. Mark lived to be 101 years old!
