Koert Lewis Blackketter, 86, of McLemoresville, passed away Monday, Jan. 25, at his home. Funeral services were held on Friday, Jan. 29 at Trezevant United Methodist Church with John Williams, and Allen Rainey officiating. Burial followed in McLemoresville Cemetery.
Mr. Blackketter was born April 25, 1934 in Red Star, Oklahoma, to the late Koert C. Blackketter and Nellie Pearl (Studebaker) Blackketter. He attended the Red Star School until his family moved to California in 1944. There he continued his education, graduating in 1952 from Upland Academy. He attended Upland College two years before transferring to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University), where he completed a bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry.
On September 2, 1955, Lewis married Arlene Van Hofwegen, who died in 2002. Lewis and Arlene established their first home in Stillwater, Oklahoma and moved to Roger Mills County, Oklahoma in January 1957, where Lewis began his career in dairy farming. In September 1965, the family moved to Trezevant, when Lewis became a partner in the Prospect Lane Jersey Farm. In April 1968, the partnership dissolved, and Lewis established the Blackketter Jersey Farm in McLemoresville, by purchasing the Vernon Bobo farm. In November 1996, Lewis sold his dairy herd, ending almost four decades as a dairy farmer.
On March 2, 2003, Lewis married Katie (Montgomery) Parrish, who survives. Lewis loved God and loved his family. He was devoted to his church, the Trezevant United Methodist Church, unselfish in his giving and in his service. He taught Sunday school for many years and also served with the Gideons International for over 40 years.
Along with his parents and first wife, he was preceded in death by an infant daughter, JoNell Blackketter, two brothers and two sisters.
Those who survive him and will greatly miss him are his wife, or “my Katie” as he called her; three daughters, Susan (Mike) Partridge, Gail (Harold) Eubanks, and Ann (Ricky) Butler, all of Huntingdon; two step-daughters, Cathy Parrish of Oklahoma and Marilyn Parrish of Memphis; two sons, Van (Louanne) Blackketter of McLemoresville, and Alan (Denise) Blackketter of Huntingdon; two step-sons, Mark Parrish and Kevin Parrish, both of Memphis; and one sister, Betty Noel of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He also leaves fourteen grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren.
